Meta's New Updates Span A Standalone AI App, Paid Plans, Aria Gen 2 Smart Glasses & More

Not too long ago we reported that Meta had launched a new version of its flagship artificial intelligene (AI) model—Llama—with the release of Llama 3.3.

This came soon after the company revealed it was making its Llama family of models to the U.S. defense and national security agencies—along with private sector partners supporting their work—as Meta looked to push its complete and utter support of an open-source AI ecosystem.

“Meta’s open-source Llama models are increasingly being used by a broad community of researchers, entrepreneurs, developers, and government bodies,” said Meta’s Nick Clegg, President of Global Affairs, in a blog post at the time.

This ideology stemmed from the company’s belief that AI should be shared by all. As such, even its own AI tools are free to use.

Now, reports say that Meta is planning to launch a paid subscription service for its AI-enabled chatbot Meta AI, just like how Microsoft and OpenAI do. This plan is expected to be initiated for its advanced models in their chatbot.

This move will begin with a test starting in the second quarter of this year. However, according to sources familiar with the matter, the company doesn’t expect the paid subscription service to generate meaningful revenue until 2026.

Meta didn’t comment on the matter.

Alternate reports find that Meta plans to launch a standalone app for its Meta AI chatbot. The app is expected to launch in Q2 2025. The standalone app will benefit users who aren’t on Meta’s laundry list of social networking platforms—Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp.

Again, this move is meant to mimic what OpenAI, Microsoft, Google, and others have done with their chatbots.

While Meta didn’t respond for a comment on this speculation either, OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman jokingly said, “Okay fine, maybe we’ll do a social app.”

In more speculative news, Meta is said to be weighing a move to raise around $35 billion in a financial package to help develop data centers in the United States. This information comes courtesy of sources familiar with the matter, who also said the funding round would be led by Apollo Global Management and witness participation from KKR & Co.

This follows Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s plan to spend $65 billion in 2025 to expand the company’s AI infrastructure, which also included talk of a $10 billion AI data center in Louisiana. 

Earlier in the month, Meta also announced its most ambitious subsea cable endeavor yet—Project Waterworth—which will be a multi-billion-dollar, multi-year investment that offers next-generation subsea infrastructure that is aimed at improving internet connectivity and boosting global AI potential.

The project will connect five continents—North America, South America, Africa, Asia, and Australia—and is expected to run for over 50,000 km (around 31,069 miles), which is around 10,000 km (6213 miles) more than the Earth’s circumference which stands at 40,075 km (24,901 miles).


Coming to more concrete moves, Meta announced the release of its Aria Gen 2 smart glasses, which are experimental smart glasses designed to enhance the research of artificial intelligence, robotics, and machine perception.

Meta’s upgraded glasses build on its Aria initiative and are meant to aid researchers with study in areas such as machine perception, egocentric and contextual AI, robotics, and more.

“For researchers looking to explore how AI systems can better understand the world from a human perspective, Aria Gen 2 glasses add a new set of capabilities to the Aria platform,” reads Meta’s blog post.

“They include a number of advances not found on any other device available today, and access to these breakthrough technologies will enable researchers to push the boundaries of what’s possible.”

The Aria Gen 2 smart glasses bring an upgraded, state-of-the-art sensor suite, ultra-low-power and on-device machine perception, eye tracking, hand tracking, speech recognition, voice interactions, a battery life that supports six to eight hours of continuous use, and more.

Meta said it would share more details about the timing of device availability with partners over the coming months.

As for the availability of other services, Meta also announced that its Meta for Education, which is a mixed and virtual reality education offering, is now available to the general public.

This will help educators access the benefits of mixed and virtual reality with Meta Quest devices while giving students access to immersive learning experiences, among other advantages.

Do you think these moves will help Meta challenge OpenAI’s stronghold on the GenAI market?

Let us know in the comments below!