Meta AI, the tech company’s cross-platform chatbot, is set to receive a host of new updates. For better or worse, depending on your privacy concerns, these updates include when the bot “remembers” details about you from past conversations in WhatsApp and Messenger.
In a blog post, Meta explained that US and Canada-based users can instruct the bot to remember certain things about you. The bot, Meta says, can also “pick up important details based on context.”
“For example, let’s say you’re hungry for breakfast and ask Meta AI for some ideas,” Meta says in the blog. “It suggests an omelette or a fancy frittata, and you respond in the chat to let Meta AI know that you’re a vegan. Meta AI can remember that information and use it to inform future recipe recommendations.”
Yet, it is worth noting that this “memory” feature doesn’t apply to group chats.
Meta AI offers a remarkable amount of personalization. The Meta bot can use your Facebook profile features, Reels, and memories from past conversations to suggest activities and events tailored to you and your lifestyle.
Is this useful? Sure it is. A little creepy? Also yes. If the idea of an AI chatbot remembering things about you thoroughly freaks you out, you might be glad to know that users are free to delete their bot’s memory at any time.
For creators, this is an important reminder to stay aware of the subtle ways AI encroaches on daily life. Think about how often you’ve agreed to terms of service without reading them.
As AI becomes more deeply ingrained in the technology you use every day, it’s important to remember what you’ve agreed to. Today’s harmless update may reveal your data in the future, so keep important conversations on secure platforms.
