Meta is including a brand new Message Summaries characteristic to WhatsApp that makes use of AI to summarize unread messages in a couple of bullet factors. The characteristic is constructed on the Non-public Processing method Meta introduced at Llamacon in April, and claims to let AI work with content material in WhatsApp with out exposing any of it to Meta itself.
As soon as the characteristic seems in your app, you simply faucet on the onscreen banner over your unread messages with that claims "Summarize privately" to obtain a abstract from Meta AI. The Message Summaries characteristic is rolling out to WhatsApp customers within the US chatting in English first, however Meta says it hopes to "deliver it to different languages and international locations later this yr."
The corporate pitches summaries as a better option to catch-up on what you missed when you haven't checked your cellphone otherwise you're simply in too many chats. AI is under no circumstances foolproof at even easy duties like this — Apple's bother with notification summaries was only some months in the past — however the software might be interesting to folks in notably giant and lively chats.
The true novelty of the summaries is how Meta claims to be deploying them with out strolling again the non-public nature of WhatsApp chats. The corporate has a weblog publish and whitepaper digging into the main points of how Non-public Processing works, however on first blush it sounds much like Non-public Cloud Compute, the tactic Apple makes use of to name on extra demanding AI options with out exposing its customers' information. Utilizing end-to-end encryption and a safe cloud atmosphere, WhatsApp messages could be processed with out information being accessed whereas its occurring, or saved after the actual fact.
Importantly, all of that is nonetheless elective. Summaries gained't be supplied with out you asking for them first, and the characteristic is disabled by default. Meta additionally says you possibly can exclude chats from being shared with the corporate's AI by way of the Superior Chat Privateness characteristic.
This text initially appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/ai-powered-chat-summaries-are-coming-to-whatsapp-191201240.html?src=rss