Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp will use AI chats to target ads
Meta's Dan Neary addresses a crowd in Sydney, April 2025 (Mumbrella)
People who use Meta’s AI tools — whether on Facebook, Instagram, or Whatsapp — will soon find their AI interactions influence the ads they are served.
The move, announced by Meta overnight, may feed into many users’ existing impressions the tech giant uses surveillance techniques to target its ads.
Meta said over 1 billion people already use Meta AI each month. These users will begin receiving notifications and emails next week to let them know about the move. Meta said that interactions with Meta AI won’t start influencing the posts, reels, recommendations and ads they see until 16 December.
Meta framed the latest development as a logical next step, given users’ movements and interactions with content within its apps already influence the content they see.
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“Many people expect their interactions to make what they see more relevant. Soon, interactions with AIs will be another signal we use to improve people’s experience,” Meta said in a statement. “Whether it’s a voice chat or a text exchange with our AI features, this update will help us improve the recommendations we provide for people across our platforms so they’re more likely to see content they’re actually interested in — and less of the content they’re not.”
It also provided an example of how this might play out for a user on the platform: “If you chat with Meta AI about hiking, we may learn that you’re interested in hiking — just as we would if you posted a reel about hiking or liked a hiking-related Page. As a result, you might start seeing recommendations for hiking groups, posts from friends about trails, or ads for hiking boots.”
An example of the notifications users will start receiving this month (Meta)
The tech, data and social giant did, however, attempt to allay people’s growing privacy and political fears, by noting that certain interactions and content areas are off limits.
“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,” the statement said.
The statement also pointed to its Ads Preferences centre and other Feed controls, which it said allows users to adjust the content and ads they see at any time.
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