AI Gatecrashers
I opened up WhatsApp the other day and was presented with “Meta AI”. Clicking the aqua purple donut then launched a chat encouraging me to “Ask Meta AI anything”.
Leaving aside my own disdain for Meta and Mark, the insertion of yet another AI chat bot into an existing tool is completely unnecessary, and encapsulates what is wrong with so many popular tech platforms.
The AI-iffication (sorry) of tech is reaching a fever pitch, like Biscoff flavoured confectionary, except Biscoff actually tastes nice whereas these AI chatbots taste like vomit.
Microsoft are doing the same with Copilot of course, but there’s at least some tenuous argument that it’s linked to the productivity tools you might be using already, and it could provide a helping hand in those situations.
But where’s the need for another chat bot inside my personal messages? I can find no way to turn this thing off either. Reading the introduction from Meta AI makes me think its the last thing I’d want anywhere near an app where I may enter all sorts of personal information into private conversations:
“Don’t share information, including sensitive topics, about others or yourself that you don’t want the AI to retain and use. Meta shares information with select partners so Meta AI can offer relevant responses. Messages are generated by AI. Some may be inaccurate or inappropriate.”
Go launch a separate Meta AI app by all means, but keep this utter tosh out of my most used apps. I’ve been slowly convincing people I know to move to Signal, and Meta AI may mean it’s time to pull the plug on my usage of Meta’s products entirely.
Instagram next, but that’s another post for another day…