Meta AI adds Arabic support for Middle East and North Africa

As large language models face growing criticism for their lack of language inclusivity beyond the English-dominated West, leading AI companies have started tailoring regional-specific LLMs to break this cycle. Now, Meta is riding that wave. 

Meta is expanding Meta AI across the Middle East and North Africa (aka, MENA) as it provides language support for millions of Arabic-speaking users in Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Libya, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Yemen.

Similarly, Mistral AI recently released its first Arabic-centric language model, Saba, which is tailored to meet the needs of its growing customer base in Arabic-speaking countries.   

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Meta AI, an AI-powered chatbot and virtual assistant based on Llama 3.2, is available on Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger. Designed to emphasize user-friendliness, the AI requires no downloads or sign-ups; “It’s simply there, ready to assist, whenever you see its signature blue circle icon,” according to Meta’s blog post released Monday.

In October, Mark Zuckerburg announced on WhatsApp the release of Meta AI to the UK, the Philippines, and countries in Latin America. The announcement also teased plans to gradually roll out the virtual assistant to the Middle East and parts of Asia as part of a multilingual project to expand access.  

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According to the blog post, “one of the standout features [of the virtual assistant] is the ability to enhance group conversations [with] tailored recommendations in real-time, sparking discussion and helping you finalize plans without ever leaving the app.” To enable this feature, users must tag @Meta AI in their chat, and various options will appear. However, availability varies depending on region. 

Meta also plans to roll out advanced multimodal features “that enable greater creativity and connection” to the MENA region. This will include generative AI tools such as “Imagine Me,” which creates stylistic and personalized selfies of users, and audio dubbing for Instagram Reels.

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According to Meta, Meta AI is now available in 42 countries and 13 languages, including MENA users, bringing the total number of active monthly users to nearly 700 million.