WhatsApp's Meta AI is now rolling out in Europe, and it can't be turned off

You can't escape AI in WhatsApp even if you are based in one of the 41 European countries. Today, more people are seeing the Meta AI chatbot being added to WhatsApp.

On March 19, WhatsApp owner Meta announced that a variety of AI upgrades would be coming to users in Europe after the company paused the rollout last year.

Since then, more users have started seeing the button to open Meta AI in WhatsApp.

One user from the United Kingdom told me that they saw the Meta AI chatbot automatically added to WhatsApp on iOS today.

Similarly, users on X and Reddit have reported that Meta AI is now appearing on WhatsApp in European countries like France, Germany, and others.

WhatsApp's built-in AI isn't powerful, and it can't be turned off

In our tests, BleepingComputer observed that Meta AI invades the existing WhatsApp experience.

In addition to the "AI" button above the "New Chat" button, you'll find shortcuts to Meta AI prompts when you try to search for a specific chat, group chat, or contact.

The chatbot built into WhatsApp is not as powerful as Meta AI's web app, but it can answer your questions, reply with a large chunk of text, share links from Bing, and even create images.

You can also use Meta AI in WhatsApp to create stickers. However, it's not possible to transcribe audio or summarize group chat.

As for privacy, Meta insists that your personal chats will not be used to train the AI models, but your conversation with Meta AI could be used to train future versions.

Unfortunately, it's not possible to turn off Meta AI in WhatsApp.

If you don't want to use AI in WhatsApp, make sure you keep your hands off the AI button that appears right above the new chat button (a very well-thought-out position).