Mark Zuckerberg says earning money from generative AI will take years

Drawing parallels to past successes such as Stories and Reels, Zuckerberg highlighted the complexity of building leading AI capabilities, cautioning investors that this endeavour may take several years to turn profitable.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently addressed investors during the company's first-quarter earnings report, shedding light on the role of generative AI in Meta's long-term strategy. While acknowledging the transformative potential of AI across its platforms, Zuckerberg talked about expectations regarding immediate profitability, saying that it will take years to earn money from AI.

A report in The Verge says that despite Meta's robust financial performance, with net income exceeding $12 billion on $36.5 billion in revenue in the last quarter, Zuckerberg predicted a deceleration in revenue growth amidst increased expenditure on AI and metaverse development.

Drawing parallels to past successes such as Stories and Reels, Zuckerberg highlighted the complexity of building leading AI capabilities, cautioning investors that this endeavour may take several years to turn profitable.

"And the initial signs are quite positive here, too. But building the leading AI will also be a larger undertaking than the other experiences we’ve added to our apps, and this is likely going to take several years," he said as per The Verge.

Talking about Meta's AI efforts, the company launched its own AI chatbot, Meta AI, during the Meta Connect 2023 event. In a blog post, the tech giant noted, "Today at Connect, we introduced you to new AI experiences and features that can enhance your connections with others - and give you the tools to be more creative, expressive, and productive." Similar to other AI chatbots in the market, Meta AI is a general-purpose AI assistant that can help users with a variety of tasks, such as answering questions, generating text, and translating languages. At the time of its launch, it was announced that Meta had partnered with Microsoft Bing so that users could access real-time information and generate images.