Meta to Launch Consumer AI Agent, Hatch, within Weeks
Meta Platforms plans to introduce a new consumer AI agent called Hatch within weeks, according to a report by The Information, based on internal documents. The company is considering a premium tier priced at up to $199.99 per month, a significant increase from its current AI chatbot offering of $7.99 monthly.
Key Details
- Launch Timeline: As soon as the next several weeks.
- Internal Code Name: Hatch
- Target Services: Meta has trained Hatch to integrate with popular services like DoorDash, Etsy, Reddit, Yelp, and Microsoft Outlook, ensuring users can complete tasks within the app.
- Pricing Tiers: Internal plans suggest a tiered system, with the premium tier offering five to ten times the daily capacity of the free product and allowances resetting each billing cycle.
- Competition: Hatch aims to compete with OpenClaw, an open-source personal agent. While OpenClaw is free, it requires command-line setup and configuration. Meta will provide packaging and infrastructure as part of its service.
- Compute Costs: OpenClaw’s creator previously incurred significant token costs, estimated at $1.3 million per month for large-scale agent operations. Meta intends to charge users for compute resources.
- Doubts: Some industry experts, like Jeremiah Dillon, express skepticism about the viability of a consumer version of OpenClaw at such a high price point, questioning the market size and suggesting Meta’s estimate may reflect the cost of running the service rather than the price customers would pay.
Additional Features
Meta is also developing a WhatsApp feature that enables users to connect and interact with AI agents created by other companies, with a limited rollout potentially starting this week.