Meta AI has arrived as a beta Mac app, but the company's data collection practices make the privacy tradeoff worth considering before diving straight in.
Another AI app is making its way to Mac. This time, it's Meta AI, the progeny of Facebook's parent company, Meta.
Meta AI has existed for a while and was previously available as a standalone app for iOS and Android. It is also available as part of WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, and Facebook.
Users who wish to try it out will need to have a Meta account, which extends to Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp accounts, too.
Currently, it's available as a beta for macOS. You can download it from the Meta AI page.
According to Meta, you just "point Meta AI at any window on your desktop to work through your tasks or use your voice to dictate in any app."
That's where Meta differs from its competitors a little. Meta is branding Meta AI as an assistant, rather than a chatbot or an all-in-one device.
While it does perform chatbot features, Meta expects users to utilize it for interfacing with Meta-owned properties first and foremost.
In fact, Meta seems to think the tool isn't geared towards John or Jane Everyman, though they'll certainly be able to use it. Instead, it's being pitched to small business owners and influencers who are looking to pass off some of their work to AI.
For example, one would be able to use the app to analyze its reach or gain insight into what has worked and what has not. And those with a professional Facebook or Instagram account can connect Meta AI to Google Workspace and manage documents and spreadsheets.
Meta says that these features will help businesses manage ad campaigns, create social media posts, and more.
Meta AI is free, though the company is currently testing usage limits on "more compute intensive features." Should a user butt up against the daily or monthly limit, they'll be able to purchase a subscription to unlock more usage.
Meta doesn't provide any publicly-facing system requirements; clicking on the download link will simply start a download straight to your machine. However, as 9to5Mac notes, it appears to work on any Apple Silicon mac running macOS 15 or later.
It uses an AppKit and SwiftUI shell with WebKit. It is not merely a ported iPad app, and thus, should be more robust than the mobile app.
Your data and Meta
Like every other company, Meta has added several clauses in its privacy statement about its usage of your data and its training models. It's worth taking these statements into consideration before you use any Meta product, be it Meta AI or anything else.
Anything shared with Meta AI, or with Meta broadly, can be used to train AI. Meta says, "We do not use the content of your private messages with friends and family to train our AIs unless you or someone in the chat chooses to share those messages with our AIs."
However, Meta does use things shared across its products as training data, including "Information shared on Meta Products including things like posts or photos and their captions, and your interactions with features that are part of AI at Meta."
It also uses information it gets from outside Meta. This could be information it buys as part of training models, or data from third-party app integration, such as a connected Google account.
Presumably, this extends to any screen sharing you opt into while using Meta AI.
