Meta Wants to Take on ChatGPT, Claude, and Grok With Standalone AI Chatbot

Meta is ramping up its efforts in the AI space with a major new move—a dedicated app for its AI chatbot, Meta AI.

Until now, Mark Zuckerberg’s AI (LlaMa) has been integrated across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp, making it accessible to users within these ecosystems. However, the company is now preparing to launch a standalone app, signaling its intent to directly compete with OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, Anthropic’s Claude und Elon Musk’s Grok.

According to reports from Reuters und The Verge, the app is expected to launch in the second quarter of 2025. This marks a shift in Meta’s AI strategy, moving beyond integration into its own platforms to creating an independent AI service that anyone can use, regardless of whether they are on Meta’s social networks.

By doing so, Meta is positioning itself as a key player in the AI assistant market, challenging existing chatbot leaders head-on.

Meta’s AI Strategy and Investments

Meta has been experimenting with AI for years. While most people associate Meta with social media, the company has invested heavily in AI research and development. Mark Zuckerberg has committed $65 billion in 2025 alone to expand Meta’s AI capabilities, with a significant portion of that going into infrastructure, data centers, and AI model development.

This isn’t a sudden shift. Meta has been integrating AI across its platforms—Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp—where Meta AI already assists users in chats and searches. The next step is making Meta AI independent, allowing users who aren’t on Meta’s platforms to access the chatbot through a dedicated app.

The Llama Models and Open-Source Push

At the core of Meta AI is Llama, the company’s open-source large language model. Meta released Llama 2 in 2023 as a free alternative to closed models like OpenAI’s GPT-4. This was a major move, as Meta positioned itself as the leader in open AI models that could be used by developers and businesses without restrictive licensing.

Since then, Meta has continued improving its AI models, with Llama 3 marking a significant step forward. However, the real game-changer is Llama 4, which is set to arrive in early 2025. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg confirmed during the company’s Q3 2024 earnings call that Llama 4 will introduce major improvements in reasoning, new modalities, and significantly faster processing.

Meta is training Llama 4 on an infrastructure that surpasses 100,000 Nvidia H100 GPUs, which, according to Zuckerberg, is larger than anything currently reported from competitors. This massive computing power hints at a model that could rival or even outperform GPT-4 and Gemini in some areas. Additionally, at the Build with AI summit, Meta’s VP of Product, Ragavan Srinivasan, emphasized that Llama 4 will expand memory-based applications for coding, introduce cross-modality support, and offer deeper integration with third-party services.

How Meta AI Stacks Up Against the Competition

The AI chatbot space is getting increasingly competitive.

• OpenAI’s ChatGPT is still the most widely used, backed by Microsoft and deeply integrated into Office products and enterprise solutions.
• Anthropic’s Claude is positioning itself as a reliable alternative, with a focus on safety and long-context processing.
• Google Gemini is leveraging its access to search data and integration with Google Workspace.
• Elon Musk’s Grok is still relatively new but has an aggressive rollout inside X (formerly Twitter) and aims to bring a different approach to AI chat.

Meta’s biggest advantage is its massive built-in user base across Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. By integrating AI into these platforms, it has already made Meta AI one of the most accessible assistants in the world. Now, with a standalone app, it aims to challenge OpenAI’s dominance more directly.

Beyond Chatbots

Meta’s AI efforts go beyond chatbots. The company is working on AI-powered wearables, including six new AI-driven devices set to launch in 2025. There’s also talk of Meta investing in humanoid robots that could bring AI into the physical world.

Additionally, Meta AI is becoming more personalized. A new memory feature will allow it to remember user preferences, such as favorite foods, past travel destinations, or workout routines, making interactions more tailored. This type of AI memory is something OpenAI and others are also working on, but Meta’s access to user data through its platforms could give it a unique edge.

The Bigger Picture

Meta’s move into standalone AI services signals a shift in the industry. Until now, its AI efforts have been tied to social media. With this new app, Meta is positioning itself as a direct competitor to OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic, moving beyond just enhancing social networks to building a broader AI ecosystem.

The AI race is far from over, and the next few years will determine which players establish long-term dominance. With billions in investment and deep integrations across multiple platforms, Meta is making sure it’s a contender.