WhatsApp to generate AI summaries of unread messages
WhatsApp users will soon get an AI summary of all their unread messages following the launch of a new tool that uses ‘Private Processing’ technology.
The Meta-owned company says: “Message Summaries” will help users who struggle with dozens of notifications and messages and want a quicker way to discover “what is happening.”
AI will now summarise all the key details in a few bullet points.
WhatsApp says the aim isn’t to stop people from reading messages but to give them a bit of context — a “heads up” — before diving into all the unread text.
The new feature went live in the US last week.
UK users will have to wait a while longer, as WhatsApp plans to roll out in other regions later in the year.
WhatsApp’s latest update is part of Meta’s broader tech and service push around artificial intelligence.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has also suggested the somewhat dystopian prospect of using AI bots as virtual friends to help people suffering from loneliness.
He noted: “For people who don’t have a person who’s a therapist, I think everyone will have an AI.”
Researchers say the dependence on AI bots is a slippery slope that could pose huge problems in the future.
Professor Soren Dinesen Ostergaard, who works at a Danish university, says AI chatbots are still too prone to giving wrong or vague advice about illnesses.
He also warned of the dangers of ‘chatbot psychosis’.
He added: “I am convinced that individuals prone to psychosis will experience, or are already experiencing, analogue delusions while interacting with generative AI chatbots.”