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Meta's AI Gets Personal: Your Chats Now Shape Your Ads

Published 1 hour ago2 minute read
David Isong
David Isong
Meta's AI Gets Personal: Your Chats Now Shape Your Ads

Meta is significantly enhancing its artificial intelligence infrastructure, which includes the integration of its AI chatbot across various Meta Platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. A pivotal development in this expansion is Meta's decision to leverage user conversations with its AI chatbot to refine content personalization and advertisement feeds. The company announced on October 1 that interactions with its generative AI tools would be used to tailor user experiences, with implementation across apps like Facebook and Instagram commencing on December 16. Users will be formally notified about this policy change on October 7.

While Meta already utilizes existing user data—such as posts, clicks, and interactions—for targeted advertising, the introduction of AI chatbot conversations adds a new dimension. These interactions allow users to directly convey specific interests, like purchasing intentions or upcoming travel plans, providing more explicit data for personalization. The social media giant has confirmed that there will be no option for users to opt out of seeing ads, though this update specifically applies to those who engage with Meta AI.

User interactions with Meta AI features, whether through voice or text, will be integrated with existing data, including likes and follows. This combined dataset will inform recommendations for content and advertisements, encompassing Reels and various ad placements. For instance, a user discussing hiking with Meta AI could subsequently receive recommendations for hiking groups, updates from friends about trails, or advertisements for hiking boots. Christy Harris, Meta's privacy policy manager, stated that these interactions would simply become another input informing the personalization of feeds and ads, with the first data-utilizing offerings still under development.

Crucially, Meta has committed to not using discussions on sensitive topics—such as religious views, sexual orientation, political views, health, or racial and ethnic origin—for advertisement targeting. The rollout of this new policy will begin in most regions on December 16 and expand progressively, with notable exclusions including the United Kingdom, the European Union, and South Korea. This initiative aims to create a more personalized digital experience, albeit with implications for user data privacy and ad targeting.

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