Tech companies have gone all in on artificial intelligence in the last couple of years, to the point where if you buy a new smartphone today, it’ll shove AI in your face whether you like it or not. Apple has Apple Intelligence, Google has Gemini and Samsung has Galaxy AI. These new-fangled software features aim to help you do stuff on your phone, from summarising notifications or emails to helping you edit the tone of a composed message or erase an unwanted photobomber from a holiday snap.
While this AI is built into the iPhone and the Android operating systems of several company’s phones, the apps we use on those devices have been kept somewhat free of AI. That appears to be changing, particularly when it comes to apps owned and run by Meta, formerly Facebook.
Meta has just announced it is bringing ‘Meta AI’ to WhatsApp. It’s a further muddying of brands after Mark Zuckerberg’s renamed juggernaut also inserted this artificial intelligence tool into Facebook, Messenger and Instagram.
Meta has pitched Meta AI as a chatbot-like personal assistant that sits across its four big apps, on call at the tap of its glowing blue circle icon for you to ask it questions. You can access this currently in the Messenger app via the search bar at the top of your chat list, or in chats by tagging ‘@MetaAI’ when you perform a sort-of web search in message form.
This is not what a privacy-minded chat app should be for, and I’m peeved it’s coming to WhatsApp.
Like many Brits I have used WhatsApp for years. Everyone is on it, it works very well, doesn’t complicate things, and messages are end-to-end encrypted. I’ve been quietly happy Meta has opted to keep the basic experience similar to what it was ten years ago.
Meta AI is very much in your face. Meta says it’ll work in WhatsApp if someone tags @MetaAI in a message in any chat.
“Just simply type “@MetaAI” followed by your prompt or question in your chosen chat group, and await your reply. Whether you’re planning a group trip, brainstorming dinner ideas, settling an ongoing debate or just looking to add some fun to your chat, Meta AI is your on-call assistant.”
I simply do not want this in WhatsApp. You might do, and that’s fair enough. But none of us have a choice in this as you won’t be able to disable Meta AI, just like I found I can’t switch it off when it infiltrated my Messenger app recently.
Apple lets me switch off Apple Intelligence on my iPhone 16. There’s literally a toggle in the settings to say, “no, thanks”. Not so with Meta AI.
“Meta AI is an entirely optional service that you can choose to ask questions, teach you something, or help come up with new ideas,” Meta spokesperson Ellie Heatrick told Express.co.uk. “A user needs to take an action to chat to or invoke Meta AI.”
It’s “optional” whether you use it or not when it pops up in your WhatsApp soon, but you can’t switch it off.
Messages with @MetaAI tagged will also be readable by Meta, though the firm claims the rest of your untouched messages will remain end-to-end encrypted and not readable.
“Only messages that mention @Meta AI, or that people choose to share with Meta AI, can be read by Meta. Meta can’t read any other messages in your personal chats,” WhatsApp said on a page on its website.
That means if you send a message in a group chat and then someone taps to reply with an in-line reply, as is common on WhatsApp, and tags @MetaAI in that reply, your original message – in which the chatbot was not tagged – is now readable by Meta and not protected by end-to-end-encryption.
This is a privacy loophole and one I now have no control over as an individual user. Anyone I’m chatting with will be able to reply to my message and tag the new AI, opening up that message to Meta’s eyes.
As a UK smartphone owner it seems somewhat impossible to consider ditching WhatsApp, but I am tempted to switch over to Signal, one of the last messaging apps to leave AI well alone and stand by its users’ right to privacy.
Meta has rolled out Meta AI in the US and other countries, but it has taken longer to get to Europe thanks to this region’s regulations.
“It’s taken longer than we would have liked to get our AI technology into the hands of people in Europe as we continue to navigate its complex regulatory system – but we’re glad we’re finally here,” Meta said. “Over the coming weeks, we’ll take the first step in making Meta AI’s chat function available in six European languages, with a view to find parity with the US and expand our offering over time.”
“Parity” includes sticking Meta AI prompts in the Chats search bar whether you like it or not, as has unavoidably happened in Messenger. Just like having adverts in my chats list in Messenger, the arrival of Meta AI had given me another reason to stick with WhatsApp, ironically owned by the same firm.
As the AI creeps in on WhatsApp too, privacy pitfalls in tow, I think it might be time to wave goodbye for good.