Meta to Leverage AI Conversations for Personalized Content and Advertising Across Platforms Starting December

Meta Platforms announced on Wednesday its plans to utilize interactions with generative AI tools for personalizing content and advertisements across Facebook, Instagram, and other apps beginning December 16.

Starting October 7, users will receive notifications about these upcoming changes. Importantly, those who use Meta AI will not have the option to opt out of this data collection process.

The company explained that both voice and text interactions with its AI features will be incorporated alongside existing data points such as likes and follows to enhance recommendations for content and advertisements, including Reels. For instance, if someone discusses hiking with Meta AI, they may subsequently see hiking groups, trail updates from friends, or advertisements for hiking boots.

Christy Harris, privacy policy manager at Meta, clarified: "People's interactions simply are going to be another piece of the input that will inform the personalization of feeds and ads. We're still in the process of building the first offerings that will make use of this data."

Meta has assured users that conversations about sensitive topics—including religious views, sexual orientation, political opinions, health matters, or racial and ethnic origin—will not be used to target advertisements.

The initial rollout begins December 16 in most global regions, though the United Kingdom, European Union, and South Korea will be excluded from this implementation.

Meta AI currently boasts 1 billion monthly active users across the company's various applications.

During the annual shareholder meeting, CEO Mark Zuckerberg emphasized that "the focus for this year is deepening the experience and making Meta AI the leading personal AI with an emphasis on personalization, voice conversations and entertainment."

Last month, Meta introduced its first consumer-ready smart glasses featuring a built-in display at its annual Connect conference.

Meta's decision to leverage AI interactions for advertising purposes comes as other technology giants like Google and Amazon begin monetizing their AI tools, primarily through cloud-based services. However, few companies have implemented AI chat interactions to personalize content and advertising across multiple platforms at the scale Meta is now pursuing.