Meta, Facebook’s parent company, has launched an artificial intelligence model that can detect individual objects within an image.
The AI tool can also extract image annotations from a dataset.
In a blog post, the company’s research division stated that its Segment Anything Model, or SAM, could identify objects in images and videos even when it had not encountered those items during training.
Objects can be selected using SAM by clicking on them or typing text prompts. Writing the word “cat” prompted the tool to draw boxes around each of several cats in a photo in one demonstration.
Internally, Meta already employs SAM-like technology for tasks such as tagging photos, moderating prohibited content, and determining which posts to recommend to Facebook and Instagram users.
According to the company, the release of SAM will increase access to that type of technology.
The SAM model and dataset will be made available for non-commercial use. Users who upload their own images to an accompanying prototype must also agree to only use it for research purposes.
Since Microsoft-backed OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot became a sensation in the fall, triggering a wave of investments and a race to dominate the space, big tech companies have been trumpeting their artificial intelligence breakthroughs.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg has stated that incorporating such generative AI “creative aids” into Meta’s apps is the company’s priority for 2023.