Change begins December 16, with user controls promised for ad settings
Meta has announced that starting December 16, user interactions with its AI chatbot will influence the ads and content shown on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Threads. The company says this update is aimed at making recommendations more relevant, while still allowing users to control what they see. Notifications about this change will start rolling out from October 7 via in-app alerts and emails.
Ads and Content Driven by AI Conversations
According to Meta, conversations with its AI chatbot will be used to personalize the posts, reels, and ads displayed across its platforms. For example, if someone chats with Meta AI about hiking, they may later see posts about hiking groups, friends’ trail updates, or ads for hiking boots. The company claims this will make both ads and content more useful by aligning them with user interests.
Meta also highlighted that only information from accounts linked through its Accounts Centre will be used. This means if a user’s WhatsApp account is not connected, interactions on WhatsApp with Meta AI won’t affect recommendations or ads on other Meta apps.
Safeguards and User Controls
While announcing the change, Meta assured users that sensitive topics will not be used to target ads. This includes categories like religious views, sexual orientation, political opinions, health details, racial or ethnic origin, and union membership. However, the company did not clearly confirm whether such topics will also be excluded from influencing general content recommendations like reels or posts.
To give people more control, Meta will allow adjustments through Ads Preferences and feed control tools. Users can fine-tune what kind of ads and content they prefer, or limit exposure to certain topics.
The update comes as part of Meta’s broader strategy to blend AI more deeply into its ecosystem, offering personalized experiences while competing with rivals in the AI-driven digital space. Whether this shift enhances user satisfaction or raises new privacy concerns will likely become clearer once the feature rolls out globally by the end of 2025.
