“Dear Meta AI, I do not want to ask you anything, so if you could just give me back my search bar, that’d be great. Ok, thanks, bye!!” Have you seen that post circulating on Facebook lately? Many users were caught off guard by the new feature Meta released and are using their First Amendment rights to voice their opinions on their page. Rants and frustration aside, what can you do about it, and how could it be helpful to you?
What can you do about it?
- Essentially, nothing. MetaAI is here to stay. You may Mute the conversation inside the Messenger app: ‘Until I change it’ is an option here. The magnifying glass shows up once this is selected, though the MetaAI search still shows up after being selected.
- “Search Facebook’’ option under the AI-generated options
- Access your Account Settings and change your privacy controls, what shows up, what you see most of, and what notifications you get. This is a bit of a rabbit hole to go down as there are many options, and you may not get notifications or change the look of your Facebook/Instagram app.
How can it be helpful to you?
- Use it like you would search anything – on Bing, Google, Edge, or Duck Duck Go. Meta’s goal is to be used as an AI tool – from content and photo creation to suggestions to planning. You don’t have to navigate OUT of the app to find the answer or photo you were looking for.
Where do I go from here?
- Educate yourself and spend some time learning more about how to guard yourself and your family from the technology world.
- Use resources like SMMC and other organizations (like Protect Young Eyes, etc.) to get Christian-based information to help protect you and your family and for further knowledge.
- Understand that technology will continually evolve, but it is here to stay; it does not have to take over your life, so you should set guidelines and boundaries where necessary.
- Remember to talk to your kids about the dangers of everything they do online and have frequent conversations about their activity online and on their phones.
Sources referenced/further learning:
https://lifehacker.com/tech/how-to-turn-off-meta-ai-on-facebook-instagram-messenger-whatsapp
https://www.tomsguide.com/news/how-to-stop-facebook-from-training-its-ai-on-your-data
https://stealthoptional.com/apps/how-to-turn-off-meta-ai-instagram-facebook
*Please note that although we have found valuable information from an external web page for our blog post, we do not endorse all information, religious views, and opinions posted on these third-party websites.