Question: I am already hating AI on my computer and iPhone. The AI is showing up on my Facebook page, on my cell phone only. I have been thinking I need to go to our Cox store to get it out, since Cox Cable is my phone “owner” to Verizon. Can I block it? If you can help it would be nice.
– Nancy C.
Fort Walton Beach, Florida
Answer: Before I answer Nancy’s question, I want to offer a sincere public thank-you to her for sharing her personal writings about her time growing up. Earlier this year, Nancy wrote-in (Geek Note: I.G.T.M. #868, March 10, 2024) seeking advice on what program to use to do these writings. At the time, in addition to the answering her question, I shared with her that I too grew up in Wisconsin, though perhaps not as rural as she. Nancy kindly offered to share the product of her efforts with me, and I enjoyed reading it. Thank you Nancy for sharing with me.
Now, to the business at hand. I think I need to redirect you on one idea you’re considering. There is no reason for you to go to Cox for anything having to do with your perceived problem. In your case, Cox is both your cellular provider and your Internet Service Provider (ISP) but they have nothing to do with the actual content you receive. That role is wholly on the site or service that you’re visiting at any given moment, in this case Facebook. Yes, Facebook’s data travels to and from your phone via Cox, or more accurately, via Verizon, which is the cellular network from which Cox leases space to resell as Cox Mobile cellular service. But the content of the data you exchange is 100% on Facebook, and neither your ISP nor your cellular provider can control what you see. You would no more contact them for this issue than you would regarding the contents of a TV program with which you took issue.
I’d like to talk about AI for a moment, before I tell you how you can do anything about it. First of all, I’m not sure I understand your unexplained hatred of AI. I find myself asking, “What did AI ever do to you, Nancy?” In my own interactions with it (including on Facebook) I’ve found it to be mostly unobtrusive, not forcing its way onto my screen and requiring me to read it. It doesn’t use up a whole lot of screen space or bandwidth, or cause my battery to deplete faster. What it does do is provide fairly accurate summaries of things that are too long to read. It provides research assistance when I don’t feel like spending time looking something up. It helps me frame my thoughts in ways other than I normally would, and that helps me take my writing from a borderline grandiloquent style to something more understandable by the masses. And it attempts to learn from its interactions, allowing me to rate it on its attempts to do all of the above.
I’m sorry to hear if your experiences with AI have been less than positive. I do understand that the experience of using a service, or even the Internet in general is a personal thing, and differs from person to person. So, I don’t cast judgement upon you for wanting it gone, rather, I’ll try and help with your goal whether I believe in it or not.
The AI that’s used by Facebook is called Meta AI, “Meta” being the actual name of the Facebook company. They say the change to Meta “foreshadows the company’s newest target: the metaverse.” Since the actual definition of “the metaverse” is a fairly fuzzy concept, nobody really understands what this means, but it applies to the sum total of online, virtual environments where everyday people work, play, and socialize. And like it or not, AI is a big part of that.
You can’t fully eliminate Meta AI from your Facebook experience, but there is at least one workaround to diminish its presence. From within Facebook, activate the search function by clicking the magnifying glass icon at the top of the page. Then click the blue arrowhead to the right, and then, click the white “i” in the blue circle. Finally, look for the “Mute” link and click it. From here you’ll get a variety of options for how long it should stay muted, including “Until I change it” which, theoretically is permanent. To turn it back on, reverse the process.
Removing the Meta AI option from other parts of Facebook is a little trickier, and involves installing an older version of the app from before they added the feature. I didn’t try this, but I fear that one would need to disable automatic app updates, and then manually avoid the inevitable, almost daily attempts to bring the app up to date. Even if successful, this eliminates the possibility of taking advantage of all other feature and security updates.
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