Meta's newest AI model beats some peers. But its amped-up AI agents are confusing Facebook users

AI language models are trained on vast pools of data that help them predict the most plausible next word in a sentence, with newer versions typically smarter and more capable than their predecessors.

"The vast majority of consumers don't candidly know or care too much about the underlying base model, but the way they will experience it is just as a much more useful, fun and versatile AI assistant," said Nick Clegg, Meta's president of global affairs, in an interview.

Some people found the earlier Llama 2 model -- released less than a year ago -- to be "a little stiff and sanctimonious sometimes in not responding to what were often perfectly innocuous or innocent prompts and questions," he said.

A official Meta AI chatbot inserted itself into a conversation in a private Facebook group for Manhattan moms, claiming that it, too, had a child in the New York City school district.

Facebook's online help page says the Meta AI agent will join a group conversation if invited, or if someone "asks a question in a post and no one responds within an hour."

Exactly one hour after a Facebook user posted about looking for certain items, an AI agent offered a "gently used" Canon camera and an "almost-new portable air conditioning unit that I never ended up using."