Four travel tech startups have announced fundraises of over $29 over the past week.
We Tested the Meta AI Chatbot for Travel.
24.10.2023 - 09:55 / skift.com / Justin Dawes / Meta Ai
Since ChatGPT was released last November, several other well-funded companies have released their own versions in an effort to compete.
The latest was Meta, which late last month released the beta version of a generative AI chatbot, called Meta AI, on mobile versions of WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook Messenger. The chatbot is powered by Meta’s proprietary large language model, similar to how OpenAI’s model powers ChatGPT and Google’s model powers Bard.
As with ChatGPT and the others, Meta AI can respond to questions about planning trips, booking flights, and more.
I tested the chatbot on WhatsApp to see how it performs for trip planning, and a few issues jumped out right away.
First, there were quite a few errors in its responses. For example, it “forgot” what was being discussed and had to be given the same prompt twice within one conversation. It also provided links to articles with its answers, but some were years old with outdated information.
Itinerary creation was another issue. It’s one thing that ChatGPT did fairly well from the start: an easily digestible list that often includes context, produced immediately with a single prompt. Google released Bard shortly after, and it had a similar structure. But with Meta AI, it took several steps for the chatbot to produce a barebones itinerary, and it was presented in a clunky format.
ChatGPT and Bard later upped their travel planning capabilities: ChatGPT Plus has many third-party plugins, and Bard recently released a capability to connect with Google travel products. Meta AI doesn’t have that — at least not yet.
Below is an overview of how Meta AI performed in three travel-related areas: itinerary creation, activities and ticketed events recommendations, and flights and hotels bookings.
To access the chatbot, go to the chats tab on WhatsApp. Click the symbol in the top right corner to start a new chat. Tap the fourth option, “New AI Chat,” and then tap the “Meta AI” option to start a conversation.
The first message comes automatically: “My name is Meta AI. Think of me like an assistant who’s here to help you learn, plan, and connect. What can I help you with today?”
Double tapping (or tapping and holding) on the response, as if to copy the text, gives options to report it as a good response or a bad response.
There are many early examples of itinerary creation with ChatGPT. While ChatGPT still has plenty of its own issues, it’s generally a good place to start for trip planning because of the detailed suggestions it provides without much effort.
Below is a refresher of the typical itinerary format on the free version of ChatGPT, using this prompt: “Can you make me an itinerary for Saturday and Sunday in New York City that focuses on
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