WhatsApp users are outraged after the social media app added a new feature to millions of phones.
Many are claiming that this function is ‘pointless and irritating’ after it was revealed that the messaging app would be introducing an artificially intelligent bot to its service.
It seems like every tech giant has been in a rush to roll out its own version of AI and Meta AI was first added to WhatsApp back in 2023.
Known as Llama 4, the AI is similar to that of OpenAI’s ChatGPT and it has also been integrated with other Meta platforms including Facebook and Instagram.
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It was initially advertised as being able to ‘answer your questions, teach you something or help come up with new ideas’.
However, users haven’t been happy to discover that there is no option to remove or disable the chatbot if they don’t want to use it.
Meta has claimed that it’s entirely optional whether the user decides to use the chatbot or not, but they haven’t included a delete button with the new feature.
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This has caused a lot of people to take to social media to react to the news, with many complaining that it ‘ruins the experience’.
On X, formerly Twitter, one person described the AI as ‘overkill’, while another said: “I am leaving @WhatsApp because of @Meta AI.”
A third user wrote: “Anyone else feeling like their phone just got a clingy new roommate?”
A fourth commented: “Congratulations to [Meta and WhatsApp] on the most pointless and irritating AI integration into an app so far.
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“When I am searching for a chat, none of this is remotely useful. Apple Intelligence was hard to beat on this front, but you managed it!”
And a fifth person added: “I don’t want to use AI to write my messages for me! I AM A CAPABLE HUMAN BEING!!”
While some people have raised concerns over privacy, Meta has confirmed that the chatbot will not be able to access or read any of the content of your messages unless you ask the AI for assistance.
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But even then, the messages on your WhatsApp app will still be end-to-end encrypted.
While your messages are secure though, your conversations with the Meta AI aren’t and these will not be end-to-end encrypted.
This is important to know because any personal information given to the chatbot may not be cyber secure.
Instead, messages sent to the bot could be used to improve later AI models.