WhatsApp introduces AI summaries of chats – first in the USA

The newly announced WhatsApp Message Summaries feature is designed to help users catch up on a flood of new unread messages in chats more quickly. According to WhatsApp, the function is aimed at users who have too many chats or want to catch up on missed messages after a marathon meeting or a flight without Wi-Fi without having to read the entire chat history.

WhatsApp: AI summaries are stored in the Meta cloud

According to Meta, a button will be integrated above every chat – initially in the USA – with which the new summary function can be executed. Tapping on the summary button will display a brief overview with all the information from the unread messages. To achieve this, however, the new messages are first sent to Meta's server, where they are summarized, and the result is then sent back to the client.

For the new function, the company uses “private processing technology” developed in-house, which enables Meta AI to “generate a response without Meta or WhatsApp ever seeing your messages or the private summaries”, according to the statement. Furthermore, chat participants should also not be able to see that users have summarized unread messages using AI. However, this could contradict Meta's own transparency claim in the white paper on “Private Processing”:“We must provide transparency when our features use private processing. If private processing has been used, this will be clearly displayed to inform users.”

AI summaries should remain private

WhatsApp also explains that the use of the message summaries function is optional and disabled by default. Users can decide for themselves whether they want to use the feature or not. In addition, users of the “Advanced Chat Privacy” function will be able to choose which chats can be shared for AI functions and which remain between the conversation participants.

Meta appears to be taking a similar approach with the “Private Processing” function as Apple does with its AI package Apple Intelligence, which the iPhone manufacturer calls “Private Cloud Compute”.

As the company explains, a session with a cloud server is established for the private AI summary – anonymized by Oblivious HTTP (OHTTP) via third-party intermediaries. According to the explanation, the session is encrypted with a temporary key that “Meta and WhatsApp do not have access to”; only the end device and the private processing servers can use it: Meta emphasizes that “no one other than the user's device or the selected TEEs (Trusted Execution Environment)” can decrypt the request.

(afl)