It's been a big day for Meta. First off, the tech giant rolled out several new features to Meta AI. And now the same AI model is coming to Quest headsets next month.
According to the company’s release video, Meta AI will function as a personal assistant of sorts on the virtual reality headset. You can ask it any burning questions you have and it’ll answer in real-time with information obtained through Bing. It can recite memorable lines from Shakespeare’s plays or give brief lectures on American history.
Through Meta AI with Vision, the headset can detect objects, people, and more in front of its cameras and then provide a contextual answer to these inquiries. For example, users can instruct the assistant to translate text into another language, give fashion tips for the summer, or identify what’s in front of it. The AI can even detect dogs, as shown in the video.
Meta AI on Quest is experimental software that is seeing a limited released in the United States and Canada. To try it out, you'll have to enter the settings menu on your headset and select "Experimental". You should see and be able to "toggle [the] features there."
Because this is experimental, users will not experience Meta AI's full capabilities. The Vision feature will be available via Passthrough on the Quest 3 and Quest Pro headsets, but it will not work in virtual reality mode. Meta states, “virtual objects are not recognized at this time,” although judging from the wording, this could change.
A Meta spokesperson confirmed that the Quest 2 will lack Vision "because it does not have color passthrough."
Also, to make room, the company states that Meta AI will replace Voice Commands as users' main way to interact with the headset. Voice Commands will be widely deprecated at some point in the future, although they'll stay if you don't try out the AI model.
Details on what will happen to Voice Commands are scarce at the moment. The Meta spokesperson didn't provide additional information.
While we have you, check out TechRadar's list of the best VR headsets for 2024.
