20 April 2025 by Mondo2.0

What can I do with Meta AI? Is this artificial intelligence really useful?

A few days ago, a new, clearly visible icon appeared on WhatsApp: a blue circle. It’s Meta AI . The first reaction of millions of users was to try to disable it or remove it from their home screen. Soon after, countless people searched online for a way to make it disappear.

The introduction of such a visible—and potentially invasive, given that it overlaps with the contact list—feature has generated some unease among users, especially on one of the most widely used apps, perceived by many as a digital extension of their social life.

After all, WhatsApp is one of the main communication tools in many countries, including Italy: we often find ourselves quickly responding to notifications, sometimes with the fear of missing parts of a conversation or important moments in groups (what I have described in other articles as ‘ Fear of missing out ‘).

WhatsApp is perceived as something “mine”, that “I” manage, how dare it add icons to my recent contacts list without consulting me?

We tend to forget that WhatsApp is a free platform. And probably few people know that our conversations are protected by end-to-end encryption, a system that prevents anyone, including WhatsApp, from accessing the content exchanged.

This is a big difference from platforms like Instagram and Facebook, where our behavior is constantly tracked for advertising purposes, thus generating financial returns through the “monetization” of user attention and interests.

This type of tracking isn’t present on WhatsApp, yet the service remains free.

We insiders have often wondered in which direction WhatsApp would evolve:

• Ads in chats? Unlikely: they would be too intrusive in an interface built on immediacy and simplicity.
• Sponsored groups? Even less so: it would be too easy to ignore them, just like we ignore people we don’t like.
• The paid app? It would lead to a diaspora to other competing platforms.

We were wondering this until a few days ago, when Meta AI appeared. But what is Meta AI really for?

Today, to be honest, not much. In fact, its presence can be annoying. But over time, a new scenario will emerge.

The possibility of chatting not with a real person, but with a software, a virtual assistant, will emerge.

You can ask for information about an actor while watching a movie, about a sportsperson during a match, about the weather, the latest news, gossip, a concert, translations into another language…

“I can search for information on Google or Wikipedia,” sure, but it’s not a real conversation. With Meta AI, however, I can delve deeper, asking further questions, just like in a normal conversation with a friend.

Their simple and direct answers will compete with search engines, which often offer scattered and inconsistent content, requiring time, concentration, and patience—qualities that digital users don’t always possess. It’s much easier and more spontaneous to engage in conversation than to search for something online.

Currently, Meta AI is still not very effective, I would dare say in the “experimental” phase.

It offers no images or videos, rarely offers external links (and through Google), and its responses are sometimes banal or out of date. The provision of images and videos, as well as the improvement in the level of conversation, will completely change the scenario and our interest.

The die is cast: we have entered the era of person-machine communication, and WhatsApp has just made its official debut.

The responses will improve, become more relevant and precise, tailored to our personal needs, because it will always be the same user, with their smartphone, conversing.

Meta AI will learn from us, adapt to our interests.

It will become more useful to chat with Meta AI (or similar tools) rather than waiting for a response from a friend or searching through dozens of Google results.

And don’t forget that Meta AI is available 24/7.

Today perceived as an intruder, this new generation of services will be our preferred mode of communication in five years. The more we inform ourselves, the better the responses will be, and we will trust its purchasing advice and suggestions on where to go on holiday.

After all, twenty years ago, few people knew about Google. And fifteen years ago, many didn’t even know how to use a smartphone’s interactive screen…

But then, why was Meta AI introduced into WhatsApp?

Simple: conversations between users are protected, but those with Meta AI represent a goldmine of information. Behind every question lies a curiosity, a need, an interest. And this information is invaluable for targeting advertising on Facebook and Instagram, which are also part of the Meta group.

Simply put: without Meta AI, WhatsApp would be short-lived, very short indeed. It doesn’t track user behavior, it doesn’t generate revenue, and it has extremely high operating costs. And, let me remind you once again, it’s completely free!

In an increasingly digital world, where we spend an average of 6 hours and 40 minutes a day online (source: Digital 2024, We Are Social ), it becomes crucial to intercept our needs, especially now that, even in Italy, digital payments have overtaken cash .

We socialize online, communicate online, shop online. Now we can do all this even by confiding in a “non-person,” namely Meta AI.

There’s no need to be optimistic or pessimistic, and it doesn’t matter if Meta AI is cumbersome and inefficient today: it will improve quickly, study 24 hours a day, learn from us, and will be an active participant in many of our future conversations.

Mondoduepuntozero