The beta version of WhatsApp for Android includes a feature that may please young (and not so young) users of Meta’s instant messaging application.
The WABeta Info site informs us that WhatsApp is currently rolling out a new update for the Android application through the Google Play beta program. Version 2.23.17.14 of the program brings a functionality, and only one, but it is significant: now, WhatsApp can produce AI generated stickers. Only “a very limited group of beta testers” currently have access to this tool, but there is no doubt that it will be made available to the general public in the coming weeks.
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WhatsApp will therefore allow users to generate a sticker to post in their chat using the “Create AI Sticker” tool. On the same principle as the generative AIs Midjourney or Dall-E, the OpenAI solution, this technology will create a illustration based on text description provided by users.
WhatsApp will create unique stickers thanks to Artificial Intelligence
As WABeta illustrates, the “Create AI Sticker” tool should be very easy to access. On Android, it will be enough to open it by tapping on the message box, then on the sticker button, at the very bottom of the interface. A button offering you to “Generate your own AI thumbnails” will then appear. Tapping on it will take you to the dialog to enter your query.
Generative Artificial Intelligences such as Midjourney or Dall-E arouse as much admiration as fear. They create images sometimes breathtaking realism, a capability increasingly misused for disinformation purposes. WhatsApp users should not, a priori, be able to generate stickers that are too “offensive”. If the example of the “Laughing cat on a skateboard” is a good indication of the style of the stickers that will be created by WhatsApp, we can expect that all the personalized illustrations offered by the application remain in a good-natured style.