WhatsApp’s AI assistant is powered by Meta’s LLaMA model family. Wikipedia identifies the assistant as based on LLaMA 4, previously LLaMA 3.
LLaMA means “Large Language Model Meta AI.” Meta released the first LLaMA model in February 2023 as a family of large language models designed for research and development. Later versions expanded its capabilities and scale.
Meta AI became available in WhatsApp in 2024, alongside deployments on Facebook and Instagram. It can answer questions, generate images, and handle some text and image tasks, although availability and features vary by country and rollout.
A common mix-up is confusing LLaMA with Meta AI. Meta AI is the assistant and product experience; LLaMA is the underlying model family. Gemini belongs to Google, Claude to Anthropic, and Mistral to Mistral AI.