Meta AI Enhances Personalization with 'Memory' Feature and Cross-Platform Data Integration

Meta AI can now remember details from your chats

The new updates are only available in the US and Canada, the company said. Meta has introduced new updates to Meta AI, allowing the chatbot to remember details from a user's chats, helping personalise future responses. Users can tell Meta AI details it can remember about a chat, allowing it to tailor future responses based on its 'memory', while the chatbot can now also "pick up important details based on context", the company said in a blog post yesterday (27 January). The new update is similar to Google's Gemini and OpenAI's ChatGPT, which previously rolled out 'memory' features. For example, a user can in a previous conversation, allow Meta AI to remember details about their dietary restrictions, which the chatbot will use to inform its future responses and recommendations. However, the update will only allow Meta AI to remember details from one-on-one conversations and not group chats, the company clarified, adding that users will have the option to delete its memories. In another update, Meta said it is offering a "greater level of personalisation for Meta AI", by allowing its chatbot Meta AI to congregate a user's personal data from across its services, including home-locations listed as part a user's Facebook profile and recently viewed content, alongside its memory of details a user has provided, to personalise content recommendations. This feature is also only available across Meta's platforms in the US and Canada, the company said. Meta's latest quarterly revenue reached $40.59bn, the highest in recent years, and CEO Mark Zuckerberg attributed this success to the company's AI progress across its apps and business. At the time, he said that improvements to Meta's AI-driven feed and video recommendations led to an 8pc increase in time spent on Facebook and a 6pc increase on Instagram in 2024. Earlier last year, the company announced a number of new AI models, including the self-taught evaluator, which the company said can train other AI without the need for human input. Don't miss out on the knowledge you need to succeed. Sign up for the Daily Brief, Silicon Republic's digest of need-to-know sci-tech news.

Meta AI will use its 'memory' to provide better recommendations

Meta is widely launching the ability for its AI chatbot to "remember" certain details about you, such as your dietary preferences or your interests, the company said in a blog post on Monday. It will then use your past conversations, in addition to details from Facebook and Instagram accounts, to provide more relevant recommendations. Meta first started rolling out a memory feature for its AI chatbot last year, but now it will be available across Facebook, Messenger, and WhatsApp on iOS and Android in the US and Canada. Though you can tell Meta AI to remember certain things, like that you love traveling, it will also "pick up important details based on context." For example, if Meta AI provides you with a recipe that contains meat, and you respond that you're vegan, the chatbot will adjust its future responses to account for your preference. Meta says its AI will only remember things in one-on-one conversations, not in group chats, and that you can delete its memories "at any time." Chatbots like ChatGPT and Google Gemini already have a similar feature. Along with these "memories," Meta AI on Facebook, Messenger, and Instagram will now deliver "a greater level of personalization" using information from your accounts. As noted by Meta, if you ask its chatbot for something fun to do with family, Meta AI could use your home location listed in your Facebook profile, as well as recently-viewed reels showing live country performances, to recommend a local country music show. Meta doesn't specify the other kinds of data its AI chatbot will glean from your Facebook and Instagram accounts, and the company didn't immediately respond to a request for more information.

Meta AI will now use your Facebook and Instagram activity to inform its recommendations

The company is giving its assistant a "memory" for more personalized suggestions. Meta is giving its AI assistant a better "memory" in an effort to make the chatbot more useful. The company's latest AI update allows the assistant to "remember certain details that you share with it in 1:1 chat" and uses your past activity on Facebook and Instagram to make more personalized recommendations. With the change, which will initially be available to the US and Canada, Meta AI will be able to track your preferences based on information you share in chat with it. In a blog post, the company uses the example of food allergies and other dietary restrictions so meta AI will "remember" to recommend recipes that fit your requirements. But the assistant will also be able to track other details about you, including information about your personal life and relationships. (Meta will allow you to track Meta AI's memories about you and remove specific details.) And, notably, Meta AI can now use your past activity across Facebook and Instagram to inform its interactions with you. For example, the company notes that Meta AI may suggest weekend activities based on the location you've identified on your Facebook profile and specific Reels you've watched. Meta's systems know a lot about their users, so these types of recommendations could be pretty far reaching and as eerily-accurate as Meta's in-app advertising. When asked for more details about what types of Facebook and Instagram activity may be used for these types of suggestions, a Meta spokesperson pointed to the company's Help Center. "Other information from your profile like your age and gender, and interests based on your activity across our products, such as the types of content, including ads, you view or interact with and how you interact with it," it states, "may be used to help personalize your interactions with AI." The latest Meta AI updates comes amid increasing hype around China-based DeepSeek, an AI assistant that's currently the top app in Apple's App Store. The sudden popularity of the assistant, which was purportedly developed for less than $6 million, has rattled investors and some in the AI industry. Meta's Chief AI Scientist, Yann Le Cun, however, said Monday that "the market reactions to DeepSeek are woefully unjustified."