in recent weeks, many users have noticed a persistent, colorful circle — a mix of blue, pink, and green — appearing in their meta-owned applications. while it may seem harmless, it represents the rollout of meta ai, a chatbot assistant powered by meta’s proprietary large language model, llama.
according to meta, the feature is meant to assist with tasks like planning trips, answering questions, and adding fun to conversations. but for many, the implementation has been anything but helpful.
privacy concerns and lack of control
users have criticized the fact that meta ai was added by default and cannot be disabled. privacy advocates argue that this violates basic principles of user consent and transparency.
“the inability to disable the feature shows a clear disregard for meta’s responsibility to incorporate privacy by design,” said kleanthi sardeli, a data protection lawyer at noyb, speaking to euronews next. “meta is essentially forcing this feature on users without going through the appropriate, lawful process of obtaining consent.”
meta has previously faced scrutiny for requiring users in europe to opt out — rather than in — of having their data used to train its models. sardeli further noted that the company hasn't been clear enough about how user data is handled, especially considering how broad and complex ai technologies can be.
users push back
discussions have emerged on reddit, with users searching for ways to disable the feature, especially in whatsapp. some even reached out to eu policymakers, including slovak mep veronika cifrová ostrihoňová, to question whether the update complies with european privacy regulations.
many people are also expressing broader frustration — often dubbed “ai fatigue” — over the relentless wave of new ai features being added to everyday apps.
can you get rid of the meta ai circle?
unfortunately, there’s no official way to turn off the meta ai feature. however, whatsapp users can mute the ai chat by long-pressing on it and selecting the mute option.
to stop your data from being used for training purposes, you can file an objection through meta’s designated form.
some android users have resorted to installing older versions of apps to bypass the feature — though this isn't a viable option on ios and poses security risks.