STORY: :: MetaFacebook-parent Meta has set out its next moves on AI. Boss Mark Zuckerberg took the stage in California during the company’s first conference for artificial intelligence developers. He revealed a new application programming interface, or API, which allows programmers to more easily build AI products using Meta’s Llama model. Zuckerberg said they would be able to customize and integrate the best bits of rival bots:”So if another model like DeepSeek is better, if Qwen is better at something, then now as developers, you have the ability to take kind of the best parts of the intelligence from the different models and produce exactly what you need, which I think is going to be very powerful.”Meta didn’t say what it would charge for the new tool, which is currently available as a preview for select customers. Rival OpenAI, creator of ChatGPT, makes most of its revenue from such APIs. Tuesday also saw Meta launch a new standalone AI assistant app. Chief Product Officer Chris Cox said a priority was to make the new bot sound natural: “We were very focused on the voice experience, the most natural possible interface, so we focused a lot on low latency, highly expressive voice. The experience is personalized, so you can connect your Facebook and Instagram accounts and the assistant will have a rough idea of your interests based on your interaction history.”Reuters has previously reported that Meta plans to test a paid subscription service for its AI chatbot in the second quarter.