The
Facebook
application
on
a
smartphone
arranged
in
Hastings-on-Hudson,
New
York,
on
Wednesday,
Feb.
1,
2023.

Tiffany
Hagler-Geard
|
Bloomberg
|
Getty
Images



Meta

on
Thursday

announced

several
new
tools
and
services,
powered
by
artificial
intelligence,
to
help
advertisers
efficiently
build
ads
and
improve
campaign
results.

At
an
event
in
New
York,
Meta
unveiled
the
AI
Sandbox,
which
it
called
a
“testing
playground”
for
advertisers
to
use
as
they
try
out
new
generative
AI-powered
ad
tools.

related
investing
news

It’s
Meta’s
latest
effort
to
show
investors
and
advertisers
that
hefty
investments
in
the
red
hot
AI
space
are
paying
off
as
the
company
reckons
with
slowing
ad
growth
and
a
costly
transition
to
the
metaverse.
In
Meta’s
most
recent

earnings

call,
finance
chief
Susan
Li
said
the
company’s
capital
expenditure
for
the
year
will
be
between
$30
billion
and
$33
billion,
an
outlook
that
“reflects
our
ongoing
build-out
of
AI
capacity
to
support
ads,
Feed
and
Reels,
along
with
an
increased
investment
in
capacity
for
our
generative
AI
initiatives.”

Meta
said
Thursday
that
it’s
been
working
with
a
small
group
of
advertisers
on
three
AI
Sandbox
tools
so
far:
text
variation,
background
generation
and
image
outcropping.

Text
variation
generates
several
versions
of
an
advertiser’s
copy,
giving
it
the
option
to
choose
which
might
work
best
for
certain
audiences.
The
background
generation
tool
also
relies
on
text,
using
inputs
to
create
images
that
advertisers
can
use
as
the
background
of
their
material.

Courtesy:
Facebook

In
a
prepared
demo,
Meta
showed
how
prompts
such
as
“NYC
street
blurred”
and
“snow
mountain
blurred
abstract
high
quality”
would
generate
the
corresponding
background
image
behind
a
product.

With
image
outcropping,
advertisers
are
able
to
automatically
adapt
images
to
be
the
correct
size
across
Meta’s
platforms.
If
an
advertiser
wants
to
post
on
Instagram’s
main
feed
as
well
as
Stories
and
Reels,
for
example,
it
will
only
have
to
adjust
one
image
for
all
three.

John
Hegeman,
Meta’s
vice
president
of
monetization,
said
the
new
offerings
will
ultimately
help
advertisers
save
time
and
achieve
“better
performance”
with
their
ads.

“The
aim
here,
again,
is
really
to
quickly
test
and
learn
and
figure
out
which
parts
of
these
new
capabilities
are
turning
out
to
be
most
helpful
for
businesses
to
achieve
their
goals,”
Hegeman
said
at
the
event.

Meta
said
it
will
gradually
expand
access
to
AI
Sandbox
to
more
advertisers
starting
in
July.

The
company
also
announced
several
AI-powered
updates
to
Meta
Advantage,
its
portfolio
of
automated
tools
and
products
that
advertisers
can
use
to
enhance
their
campaigns.
Meta
has
started
rolling
out
an
automated
performance
comparisons
report,
and
in
the
coming
months
will
begin
introducing
features
that
improve
audience
reach
and
promote
dynamic
video
ads.

Hegeman
said
Meta
has
been
investing
“tens
of
billions
of
dollars”
into
AI
each
year,
and
that
the
company
is
using
larger
and
more
complex
models
in
its
ad
systems.
He
said
the
advanced
models
will
help
drive
better
results
for
businesses.

“Overall,
the
generative
AI
space
is
developing
incredibly
quickly
right
now
and
it’s
a
very
exciting
time,”
he
said.
“Our
unique
opportunity
is
to
integrate
these
features
over
time
into
our
products.”


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