Meta will soon use the conversations you have with its AI chatbots to target you with even more personalized ads, beginning on Dec 16th.
Well, that didn't take long!
The company already targets users with ads based on what they post, view, and click on, which websites they visit, where they go in real life, who they are connected to, how often they poop, etc. However targeting AI chat conversations takes that personalization a step further because oftentimes in chats, users are directly telling the company what they're shopping for, where they'll be traveling to, or what problems they have, giving Meta an unprecedented ability to target their most intimate desires.
In other words, Meta no longer has to infer based on your browsing activity that you'll be traveling to Cuenca, Ecuador next month, because likely you would have asked it for advice about hotels, flights, and what to do while there.
Meta will also use data from your chatbot conversations to help decide what type of content to view on its social platforms. Remember when Meta used to listen to your in-person conversations through your microphone (story #4)? Well now it doesn't have to, because you're having the conversations directly with its AI. (Although rest assured, it still will listen to your phone calls.)
Meta says that it will target ads & content to users if, for example, they talk to their chatbot about hiking, traveling, or shopping. However it will avoid using personal or difficult conversations you have with its AI, such as about a relationship or depression, to serve ad content.
2026 Headline Prediction: “Meta takes heat for using intimate conversations that users have with its AI chatbot to serve ads”
It's somewhat respectable that Meta is being insanely open about the fact that they're going to serve you ads based on your chatbot conversations. Whereas Sam Altman has previously spoken about how merging ads with AI is “sort of uniquely unsettling to me” and would be considered a “last resort” for ChatGPT, while simultaneously creating e-commerce integrations and likely building an ad network.
I also don't necessarily think that it's a bad thing for my AI research to later surface relevant content in Facebook or Instagram. For example, if I'm talking to Meta's chatbot about traveling to Buenos Aires, it could be valuable for Facebook to later surface groups or pages related to traveling in Argentina. Research and discovery can go hand in hand.
What are your thoughts? Join the conversation on LinkedIn.