Meta to launch 'Incognito Chat' for private AI conversations on WhatsApp
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People walk behind a logo of Meta Platforms company, during a conference in Mumbai, India, September 20, 2023. REUTERS/Francis Mascarenhas
By Katie Paul and Jaspreet Singh
May 13 (Reuters) - Meta Platforms is rolling out a new "Incognito Chat" feature for its artificial intelligence assistant on WhatsApp messaging service, the company said on Wednesday, as it looks to address data privacy concerns.
Meta said incognito chats will be powered by its private processing technology, ensuring conversations remain invisible to anyone, including the company itself.
"Your conversations are not saved and by default, your messages disappear — giving you a space to think and explore ideas without anyone watching," the company said in a blog post.
The move comes as people often share sensitive personal, financial, health or work-related information with AI assistants, despite privacy concerns about how their data could be stored or used by the companies.
"We're starting to ask a lot of meaningful questions about our lives with AI systems. It doesn't always feel like you should have to share the information behind those questions with the companies that run those AI systems," Head of WhatsApp Will Cathcart said in a media briefing.
According to a company website, messages people share with Meta AI may be used by the social media company to improve its AI models, but personal chats on WhatsApp remain protected by end-to-end encryption and are not accessible for that purpose.
For now, incognito chat is text-only, meaning users will not be able to upload images, Cathcart said.
He added that the AI will also have built-in safety guardrails, refusing to answer problematic questions or steering conversations in different directions.
Meta said it also plans to introduce "Side Chat" with Meta AI in the coming months, a feature that will allow users to get private assistance within any chat on WhatsApp.
(Reporting by Katie Paul in New York and Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Shreya Biswas)
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