Meta will soon start showing ads and other content to users based on their interactions with the company's generative AI tools. The move is aimed at personalizing content and advertising across Meta's apps like Facebook and Instagram starting December 16.
The tech giant says it will notify users by October 7, but they won't have an option to opt out. The silver lining, however, is that the update only applies to users who use its Meta AI.
Meta AI is currently only prominently highlighted across the company's various apps like Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger. Meanwhile, the AI chatbot is also available via a standalone app and website.
"When people have conversations with Meta AI about topics such as their religious views, sexual orientation, political views, health, racial or ethnic origin, philosophical beliefs, or trade union membership, as always, we don’t use those topics to show them ads," Meta said in a blog post.
The company also says that users will be able to adjust the content and ads they see by going to the Ads Preferences.
Notably, the social media giant already uses the information about what users post and click on and the people they are connected to on its platforms in order to target them with advertisements.
If you linked all your Meta accounts like WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook in the same Accounts Center, then your interactions with Meta AI in one of the platforms will be used to show advertisements on all of them.
During Meta's annual shareholder meeting earlier in the year, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said (as cited by Reuters), "focus for this year is deepening the experience and making Meta AI the leading personal AI with an emphasis on personalization, voice conversations and entertainment."
The decision by Meta to target users with ads based on their conversations comes amid a growing fear that AI chatbots could themselves start showing ads in the future. In fact, OpenAI's ChatGPT may be on the way to get ads in the not too distant future, if reports are to be believed.
Meanwhile, Google started showing ads in its AI overviews last year, and the company announced its plans to show ads in AI mode earlier in the year.
