Meta Stock Surges 18% as WhatsApp Launches AI Message Summaries

Meta has introduced an AI-powered message summaries feature on WhatsApp, designed to help users quickly catch up on unread messages in chats. The summaries are generated using Meta’s Private Processing technology, ensuring that neither Meta nor WhatsApp can access the content of the messages or the summaries. This feature is initially available in the U.S. with English language support, with plans to expand to more countries and languages later this year.

The feature is optional and off by default, but WhatsApp shows a small icon to let users know they can use it. Users can access the Message Summaries feature through a new setting in the app, which can be turned on or off individually. This allows users to control their experience and decide when to use the AI-powered summaries. The feature is available to both Android and iOS users, ensuring a consistent experience across different operating systems.

Meta’s Private Processing technology ensures that the summaries are generated securely, without compromising message privacy. This technology builds on the AI capabilities that Meta released in April, which allowed the company to implement AI features that don’t impact encryption or user privacy. According to Meta, “Private Processing will allow users to leverage powerful AI features, while preserving WhatsApp’s core privacy promise, ensuring no one except you and the people you’re talking to can access or share your personal messages, not even Meta or WhatsApp.”

Meta has been working to improve the AI part of its business, as evidenced by its recent acquisition of 49% of the startup Scale AI for $7.4 billion. Additionally, the company has been accused by OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman, of making “giant offers” to his team members, including $100 million “signing bonuses.” These events have given investors more faith in Meta’s ability to grow in the future. As of the end of the last quarter, Meta’s stock price went up 18%, which is more than the market’s 12% rise over the past year.

Looking at the company’s longer-term performance, Meta’s total shareholder return, including share price and dividends, reached 336.81% over three years. This did much better than the US Interactive Media and Services industry and the market over the past year. Meta’s return was higher than the industry’s 7.4% return and the market’s 12.2% return during the same period. The 18% rise in Meta’s stock price over the last quarter also differs from the average analyst price goal of $703.89, which suggests room for more growth than the market expects.

Pavel Durov, the CEO of Telegram, has accused Meta of copying Telegram’s features with a five-year delay. He stated, “WhatsApp copies everything we do with a five-year delay… But it doesn’t bother me, it validates our choices. I’ve already met Mark Zuckerberg. I respect him as a business leader, but, with such means, I still think they could show more imagination.” However, Telegram does not employ a default chatbot on the app, instead giving users the liberty to integrate the chatbot of their choice.