Can I cancel Meta AI? How to avoid using technology

SAN FRANCISCO – If you use Facebook, WhatsApp or Instagram, you’ve probably noticed a new character appearing answering search queries or eagerly offering information in your feeds, with varying degrees of accuracy.

It’s Meta AI and it’s here to help, at least according to Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who calls it “the smartest AI assistant you can use freely.”

The chatbot can recommend local restaurants, offer more information about something you see in a Facebook post, search for airline flights, or generate images at a glance. If you’re chatting with friends to plan a night out, you can invite them to your group chat by typing @MetaAI and asking them to recommend, say, cocktail bars.

Meta’s AI tool has been integrated into chat boxes and search bars across all of the tech giant’s platforms. The assistant appears, for example, at the top of your chat list in Messenger. Ask questions about anything or “imagine” something and it will generate an image or animation.

As with any new technology, there are of course setbacks, including bizarre exchanges when chatbots start interacting with real people. One of them joined a Facebook group of mothers to talk about her gifted son. Another attempted to distribute non-existent items to confused members of a Buy Nothing forum.

Meta AI has not been universally welcomed. Here are some tips if you want to avoid using it.

Can I turn off Meta AI?

Some Facebook users don’t like the chatbot, complaining in online forums that they’re tired of having AI forced on them all the time or that they just want to stick with what they know. So what if you don’t want Meta AI to butt in every time you search for something or scroll through social feeds? Well, you might need a time machine. Meta and other technology companies are in an AI arms race, producing new language models and persuading – some might say pushing – the public to use them.

The bad news is that there is no button to turn off Meta AI on Facebook, Instagram, Messenger or WhatsApp. However, if you want to limit it, there are some (imperfect) workarounds.

How to mute Meta AI

In the Facebook mobile app, tap the “search” button. You may receive a message to “Ask Meta AI anything”. Tap the blue triangle on the right and then the blue circle with an “i” inside it. Here you will see a “mute” button, with options to mute the chatbot for 15 minutes or more, or “Until I change.” You can do the same on Instagram.

However, muting does not completely eliminate Meta AI. The circular Meta AI logo may still appear where the search magnifying glass used to be – and tapping it will take you to the Meta AI field. This is now the new way to search on Meta, and just like with Google’s AI summaries, answers will be generated by AI.

I asked the chatbot about searching Facebook without Meta AI results.

“Meta AI is intended to be a useful assistant and is in the search bar to help with your questions,” he replied. It then added: “You can’t turn it off in this experience, but you can tap the search button after writing your query and search as you normally would.

So I asked a (human) Meta spokesperson. “You can search as you normally would and choose to interact with a variety of results – some from Meta AI or others that appear as you type,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “And when you interact with Meta AI, you have access to real-time information without having to leave the app you are using, thanks to our research partnerships.”

Like an eager personal assistant, Meta AI also appears in Facebook News Feed posts, offering more information about what is discussed in the post – like the subject of a news story. It’s not possible to disable this feature, so you’ll just have to ignore it.

Use an “old school” version of Facebook

Tech sites have noted that a surefire way to avoid Facebook’s AI assistant is to use the social network’s streamlined mobile site, mbasic.facebook.com. It’s aimed at people in developing countries who use older phones on slower Internet connections. The basic site has a retro feel that looks crude compared to the current version, and looks even worse on desktop browsers, but it still works at a rudimentary level and without

AI. In other countries

So far, Meta AI is only available in the United States and 13 other countries, including Australia, Canada, Ghana, Jamaica, Malawi, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, Singapore, South Africa, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. So, if you don’t live in any of these places, you don’t need to worry about the chatbot because you won’t be able to use it. At least not yet.