Meta’s AI of the same name is now also available as a standalone app called Meta AI. In addition to the chatbot, which should already be familiar to Instagram and WhatsApp users from their chat overviews, there are also some curious finds to discover here.
Meta AI also has a Discover feed, in which you can read requests to Meta AI that others have shared there – You can also publish your own AI style blossoms here if you wish. However, according to recent media reports, it is doubtful whether some users are really deliberately revealing their information to the public.
Intimate and confidential information en masse
The US magazine TheVerge, among others, has now reported that some of the feeds contain the most intimate or confidential information, but often also nonsense or troll content. For example, requests in which users inform Meta AI about their strange skin rash or tell Meta AI that they have committed a crime and now want to know about possible consequences. All of this can be read publicly at – and can probably also be traced back to the people behind it in some cases based on revealing usernames or profile pictures.
However, the decisive factor here is that Meta expressly states that it only publishes prompts and their responses if the users have expressly consented to this or initiated it. After a prompt, the app apparently asks via a dialog box whether it should be shared. If users want to do so, they are once again warned that this information is now publicly visible and should not contain any personal data or any data that they may not want to entrust to the general public.
But that doesn’t seem to stop many users or they don’t understand what the app is actually doing at that moment. Some may also believe themselves to be completely anonymous or are generally more open about certain things. Curious users can now download the app to their tablet or smartphone from the Google Play Store and Apple’s App Store – where Meta advertises: “Get useful prompts in the Discover feed”. Meta AI is also available as a web application.
Personalized answers based on user information
Other advantages of the app include personalized answers and an AI that quickly understands the preferences and interests of its users. However, personalized answers are currently only available in the USA and Canada. Meta AI also includes information that users have disclosed in Meta products in its AI knowledge base, for example content that users have clicked on “Like” or simply looked at in more detail. Possibly also outside the Meta services – Meta recently exploited various technical features of Android browsers and apps to circumvent communication barriers imposed by the operating system, particularly via local listening ports. Without special privileges or consent, a Meta app (Facebook or Instagram are affected) can listen to incoming connections. Even if the user is not currently using the app – it is running and continues to listen in the background. This was done in cooperation with the web company Yandex and was primarily used to sell the data to advertisers – There is no information on whether it is also used in Meta AI.
With Meta AI, you can also officially link your Facebook or Instagram account via the Meta Account Center. Meta then also includes the information that users have shared here. The app emerged from the Meta Glasses app and previously operated under this name in the app stores. If you have the appropriate glasses, you can also use the app to use the glasses’ voice control and access privacy settings, calls and more.
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This article was originally published in
German.
It was translated with technical assistance and editorially reviewed before publication.
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