Meta, the parent company of popular platforms like Facebook and Instagram, continues its integration of AI-powered features, with the latest addition being introduced to its widely-used instant messaging service – WhatsApp.

Earlier this year, during the Meta Connect 2023 event, the tech giant revealed plans to incorporate an AI chatbot into WhatsApp. While initially available to select users in the United States, the latest discovery by WABetaInfo indicates that the beta version of WhatsApp for Android now includes a shortcut button for quick access to Meta's AI-powered chatbot, eliminating the need to navigate through the conversation list.

The newly introduced AI chatbot button is situated in the 'Chats' section of WhatsApp, positioned above the 'New Chat' button. Presently, this feature appears to be accessible to only a limited number of users, with no specific timeline provided for its broader availability.

In September of this year, Meta unveiled a versatile AI chatbot akin to ChatGPT, capable of assisting users with tasks ranging from answering queries to planning trips. Additionally, Meta announced a collaboration with Microsoft's Bing Chat, enhancing the chatbot's capabilities to provide real-time web results.

Similar to text-to-image generators such as MidJourney and Bing Image Creator, Meta's new AI assistant empowers users to create realistic images from scratch using a '/imagine' command, free of charge. Leveraging a custom model that combines Llama 2 with Meta's latest advancements in large language models, the AI assistant aims to offer recommendations, provide humor, settle group chat debates, and serve as a reliable source for answering questions or imparting new knowledge, according to Meta.