Gadget of the Week: Meta AI grows up

What is it?

Meta AI has broken free from WhatsApp. Where it was once both the most accessible artificial intelligence (AI) tool in the world and arguably the worst, it has suddenly grown up and left home.

At this stage it still only offers a browser interface and a mobile downloadable app for Android and iOS. That is the first clue that it is still behind the AI curve, since market leaders ChatGPT and Claude are now most effective and versatile when used as a desktop app.

The biggest plus is that one is no longer stuck with the near-useless WhatsApp AI, which currently does not work at all for many users.

It helps enormously that Meta has not tried to reinvent AI chat and has adopted what has become almost the default interface of AI platforms. It even mimics the chatty opening questions that characterise Claude (“How can I help you today”) and ChatGPT (“What should we work on?”) with the message:” What can I do for you?”

A menu pane on the left of the browser window carries the same sidebar opening-closing icon above options like New Chat, Search, Media and Artefacts, along with a few more options before getting to History, a small reworking of its main rivals Recents listing.

Yes, you guessed it, ChatGPT and Claude got together and had a baby called Meta AI.  Or, at least, you would be forgiven for thinking that. It even offers a working window in the same size and position as its ancestors. In the bottom right of that window, you get to choose the model you want to use – in the case of the free version, that is either Instant (“Answers right away”), or  Thinking (“Reasons longer for better answers”). It couldn’t possibly have got the idea from the others, since the free version of Claude, for example, has various model options with descriptions ranging from “Fastest for quick answers” to “For complex answers”.

The problem here is that Meta AI’s Instant version is as slow as Claude’s Complex option. That in itself is not necessarily a problem, since a 15-second wait for free information is not a deal-breaker. On the other hand, Meta AI wins hands-down on image generation. The image here, based on a prompt to “create a realistic image of a black cat with big yellow eyes cuddled into a sleeping grey cat” (because isn’t that what AI is for?) took 15 seconds to generate. The same request on ChatGPT took 30 seconds to generate an image – albeit more photo-realistic. Not surprising, as ChatGPT uses the DALL·E 3 image generation model, which prioritises realism over speed. The much-maligned Microsoft Copilot was a little quicker than ChatGPT. Claude and Deepseek stay out of the image-generation game altogether.

A quick poll among a small sample of mat cat ladies saw the Meta AI cats voted the best of the three generated images, but it has to be said that it was not a clear-cut win, and reflects the current standard and speed of AI generated imagery.

Incidentally, all were beaten hands-down by Grok’s Imagine model, which took 7 seconds to create the most realistic image of all. Given the toxicity built into its parent company, xAI, and social media cousin X, however, it remains a very personal option.

A more impressive test was to ask Meta AI to produce a market analysis of a particular sector that my company, World Wide Worx, researches.  It started well, but as it progressed into a 3000-word report, both the analysis and the quality of writing deteriorated. The conclusion: it does a great job at shorter analysis, but more in-depth projects need a combination of paid models and human insight.

For ordinary users, on the other hand, it does a terrific job researching something as basic as restaurant options.  Asking it to recommend the best Punjabi north Indian curry restaurants in Johannesburg, it provided a wide range of rankings based on different considerations. It included reviews, ratings relative to number of people leaving those ratings, distance from my home, value-for-money, and value-for-experience. It even pushed back when I told it remove one listing due to wanting to avoid plate-sharing – and insisted I would love it for a number of other reasons.

This all feels like a facelift, given what went before, and so it is. The secret sauce is Muse Spark, the first model from Meta Superintelligence Labs. It gives Meta AI the Instant and Thinking modes, and can work with text, images and live camera input. On the mobile app, users can talk to it, interrupt an answer, switch languages and ask questions about whatever the camera is viewing. Some of these functions are still being rolled out by market, so the menu South Africans see may trail Meta’s product announcements.

Meta is also turning the service into an agent that can connect to email and calendar apps, create slide decks, produce briefings and carry out recurring tasks. That could make it even more useful than ChatGPT and its paid-for agentic functions, if scheduling is a big deal for you.

Where accounts are linked in Metra’s Accounts Centre, it can draw on profile information and activity across Facebook and Instagram. Meta has added an Incognito Chat mode that it says keeps messages from Meta and deletes them by default, but it is also being introduced gradually. Check which mode is active before typing anything sensitive.

What does it cost?

Meta AI told me:
In South Africa, using Meta AI in the browser at meta.ai is free – no cost to chat, generate images, etc. What changed this year is Meta added optional paid tiers.

From 27 May 2026 Meta rolled out Meta One subscriptions globally, which includes South Africa:

* Free tier: Meta AI stays free to use as before

* Meta One Plus: $7.99 / month (~R150) – more access to advanced features

* Meta One Premium: $19.99 / month (~R375) – maximum compute capacity, more “thinking mode” and enhanced video/image generation

And for businesses/creators:

* Meta One Essential: $14.99/mo

* Meta One Advanced: $49.99/mo

For current pricing, visit https://www.meta.com/help/artificial-intelligence/

What are the biggest negatives?

• No desktop app, leaving serious users in a browser.
• Instant mode can be painfully slow.
• Long reports become weaker as they grow.

What are the biggest positives?

• Image generation is fast and produces appealing results.
• The familiar interface makes it easy to use immediately.
• The free version handles short analysis and everyday research reasonably well.

* Arthur Goldstuck is CEO of World Wide Worx, editor-in-chief of Gadget.co.za, and author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to AI – The African Edge.