Meta launches standalone AI app in bold challenge to ChatGPT

Meta is stepping up its AI ambitions with the launch of a standalone Meta AI app, putting it in direct competition with OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

The timing is hard to ignore. The announcement comes less than a month after Meta’s longtime AI research chief, Joelle Pineau, resigned amid growing internal tensions over the company’s AGI push and mounting pressure to keep up with open-source rivals. Several reports have described the atmosphere inside Meta’s AI unit as increasingly chaotic.

Meta Escalates AI Battle with New App to Rival ChatGPT and Gemini

The move also backs up reporting from CNBC in February. Meta originally introduced its chatbot in September 2023, building it directly into apps like Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger. The assistant could respond to prompts, create images, and handle casual queries, without users needing to leave the app.

In April, Meta took it a step further by swapping out the search bars in those apps with Meta AI. That move signaled the company’s intent to make AI feel like a core experience across its platforms.

Now, with a standalone app, Meta is going where Google and Elon Musk have already gone. Both companies released separate apps for their AI products, Gemini and Grok. Meta clearly doesn’t want to be left out of that category.

Mark Zuckerberg seems confident in the direction. Back in January, he said 2025 would be the year “when a highly intelligent and personalized AI assistant reaches more than 1 billion people,” adding that he expects Meta AI to be the one that gets there first.

The user numbers suggest he might not be bluffing. Meta’s CFO, Susan Li, said the AI assistant had around 700 million monthly active users as of January, up from 600 million just a month earlier, CNBC reported.

Meta isn’t just building AI into its products—it’s betting big that its assistant can become the go-to option for a billion people. And with a new standalone app in the mix, the company is clearly all in.