Ahead of Meta’s first-ever conference on generative AI, the company also announced a major update on its plans to bring AI features to WhatsApp chats. In its LlamaCon update, the company said it is working on what it calls “private processing” that will allow users to take advantage of WhatsApp’s generative AI capabilities without compromising its privacy features.
According to Meta, private processing is an “optional feature” that will allow people to “use artificial intelligence capabilities to do things like summarize unread messages or finalize them, while still keeping messages private.” WhatsApp is, of course, known for its strong privacy protection and end-to-end encryption. This would seem to be incompatible with cloud-based AI features like Meta AI. But Private Processing will allow Meta to do both.
The company seems to be well aware that such a plan is likely to be met with skepticism. WhatsApp is already regularly targeted by hackers. To allay the inevitable concerns from the security community, the company says it will allow security researchers and others to audit private processing, and will also make the technology part of its bug bounty program, which rewards people who find vulnerabilities in its services.
It is not yet clear when the generative AI features will be available in WhatsApp chats – the company describes its announcement today as only a “first look” at the technology – but it notes that Private Processing and “similar infrastructure” could be used beyond its messaging app.
