• Meta AI has announced the rollout of a new feature for its assistant called Memory.
• It is designed to offer better recommendations by accessing certain aspects of one-on-one conversations with Meta AI, as well as past posts on Facebook and Instagram.
• The Memory feature is only available in the US and Canada on iOS and Android for now.

Meta AI is getting some new features which may raise some privacy concerns.

The first feature is called Memory, and as the name suggests, it is designed to leverage past information and posts from users of Meta-owned apps in order to serve up a more personalised experience.

“At the close of last year, we began to gradually roll out a new feature that lets Meta AI remember certain details that you share with it in 1:1 chats on WhatsApp and Messenger, which may help it personalize future responses so they’re more useful and relevant to you,” explained Meta in a blog post.

“You can tell Meta AI to remember certain things about you (like that you love to travel and learn new language), and it can also pick up important details based on context,” it added.

For those not keen on Memory, it can also be restricted in terms of what it is allowed to access.

The second new feature being brought to the fore for Meta AI also makes use of previous interactions to provide more context-based recommendations.

To that end Meta AI on Facebook, Messenger, and Instagram will leverage certain aspects of past content posted on the respective platforms in order to serve up better recommendations. Here Meta uses the example of planning a trip with your family.

“Let’s say you’re looking for something fun to do with your family this weekend and you ask Meta AI to suggest something. Based on the home location you’ve listed as part of your Facebook profile, recent views of reels featuring live performances by various country artists and its memory that you have a partner and two young kids, Meta AI might suggest tickets for that weekend’s country music show at your local arena and reservations at a local brunch spot,” it posited.

While both of these features are aimed at enhance the experience of the AI-powered assistant, they do raise questions about how much information on users should be accessible.

This is something that Microsoft has had to grapple with after mixed reactions to its Recall feature for Copilot+, which on the surface appeared quite useful, also meant users had to be comfortable with the AI-powered software having full access to personal details and documents.

Whether Meta will have similar concerns to deal with remains to be seen, but the company appears to be taking a cautious approach to the rollout of the above new features.

Both Memory and personalised recommendations are slowly rolling out to iOS and Android users in the US and Canada for the former, and Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram in then same two regions for the latter.