What to expect from the Meta Connect 2024 event

Meta will unveil its latest technologies at its annual Connect developer conference on Wednesday. 

The Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp parent company could showcase its artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities.

The conference comes two weeks after Apple demonstrated its AI software at its own developer conference, as well as updated hardware. 

Here’s what we can expect from the event.

Llama large language model

Meta will likely discuss how it will improve its Llama 3.1 large language model (LLM), which is trying to rival Google and OpenAI’s models.

It first came out in July and according to Meta, costs roughly half that of OpenAI’s GPT-4o to run in production. It is also an open source model, and released the model weights so that companies can train it on custom data and modify it to their liking.

Meta will also announce its AI chatbot will have a voice, according to Reuters, which reported that celebrities Judi Dench, Kristen Bell, John Cena, Awkwafina and Keegan-Michael Key will lend their voices to Meta’s AI.

AI and AR

But Meta, which invested heavily in the metaverse and even changed its name to reflect this virtual reality technology, is trying to combine AI and AR (augmented reality). 

Meta is focusing on augmented reality glasses, which were possibly seen in the background of a photo CEO Mark Zuckerberg posted in February, which he later said they would “be ready to share more [about] later this year”.

It comes after the release of the Ray-Ban smart glasses in 2021. Meta said this month it had extended a long-term partnership with the Ray-Ban maker EssilorLuxottica.

VR Headset?

The company reportedly killed a next-generation mixed-reality headset, which was meant to compete with the Apple Vision Pro. 

As for virtual reality (VR), Meta is stripping back its Quest 3 headset and will release the Quest 3S, according to Blomberg’s Mark Gurman who also said the company is aiming to make it cheaper than the current version at a cost of around $300 to $400 (€260 to €360).

We will have to wait until the Connect event to find out more, which will be at 19:00 CET.