The company that produces Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and the Quest brand of virtual reality goggles. Originally founded as Facebook, Inc., the company changed its name to Meta Platforms, Inc. in 2021. Meta Platforms is the largest social media company in the world.
The Metaverse and Beyond
The Meta name was likely chosen because it means "beyond" in Greek. In addition, at that time, the company was making a big push in the metaverse world, which all but disappeared due to lack of standards and interoperability. See
metaverse.
In Israel, Facebook's new name was criticized because meta sounds like the Hebrew word for "she is dead."
Meta AI
In 2013, Meta launched the Facebook AI Research (FAIR) lab, later renamed Meta AI. Within a couple years, Facebook stickers debuted allowing users to create AI-generated images to paste into Facebook messages. AI was also used to optimize Meta's content and perform chatbot-like functions in Messenger (Facebook M) such as booking a venue, sending gifs and answering general questions.
In 2023, Meta launched its first LLaMa model, which was the beginning of a line of highly intelligent chatbots. See
Facebook,
Instagram,
WhatsApp Messenger and
Meta Quest.