WhatsApp testing gen AI tool to create personalised profile photo

Based on user description in text, it will be able to generate a human face with facial characteristics in terms of skin tone, eyebrows, nose, lips, and ears.

WhatsApp, earlier this month, introduced a whole lot of improvements to the messenger app in terms of refreshing the user interface, redesigning icons, introducing a new chat background and more.

Now, the Meta-owned company has begun testing a generative Artificial Intelligence (gen AI)-powered tool that can help users create personalised profile photos, reported WABetaInfo, citing the latest WhatsApp Android beta v2.23.17.14.

As you can see in the screenshot (below), WhatsApp offers a new tab--Create AI Profile Photo-- in the Profile Photo section at the top in Settings. Here, users can describe themselves through text inputs. Based on this, it will be able to generate a human face with facial characteristics in terms of skin tone, eyebrows, nose, lips, and ears. Users can describe their hairstyle too.

WhatsApp's new AI Profile Photo creator tool.

There is no word on what type of Large Language Model (LLM) is being used by Meta for the AI Profile Photo creator tool.

Also, the company is likely to put it under further tests, as gen AI models are not fool-proof yet. One wrong result may land Meta, a multi-billion tech company in a big trouble.

A few months ago, Google got panned for inaccurate results generated by its Gen AI Gemini chatbot.

For instance, when users asked Gemini to produce Viking soldiers' photos, it churned out irrelevant images of people of mixed ethnicities in Viking gear.

So, Meta is not in a hurry to introduce the gen AI-based profile photo generator on WhatsApp.

It has sought feedback from public testers and is likely to take several months to ensure the gen AI tool is capable of producing accurate photos as per the text description.

In a related development, the company has soft-launched Meta AI on WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook Messenger to a limited number of people in select global regions including India.

Get the latest news on new launches, gadget reviews, apps, cybersecurity, and more on personal technology only on DH Tech.