You can now use AI backgrounds in WhatsApp video chats

The inescapability of AI continues, and Meta is at the forefront. WhatsApp has already liberally coated itself in features driven by artificial intelligence, and now there are more.

This time around, things are fairly innocuous. The chat platform has now added the option of using AI backgrounds within video chats.

Powered by Meta’s own brand of artificial intelligence, Meta AI, the arrival of AI backgrounds in video chats was inevitable. The only real surprise here is that it took Meta as long as it did to inject this particular variety of AI into WhatsApp, as the company has been busy slashing the technology around everywhere it can.

While there is, if we are being generous, an element of fun to having an AI-generated background when conducting a video chat, there is a niggling sense that this is something that could be open to abuse.

In an instant, the feature gives WhatsApp users the ability to place themselves anywhere, in any imaginable situation – and this is something that could be used for nefarious purposes.

Posting enthusiastically on X about the latest addition, WhatsApp skips over this possibility, saying simply:

we've added even more effects and filters for video calls, photos and videos 🤳 and now you can also imagine any background and bring it to life with Meta AI on WhatsApp

As the post mentions, there are also new filters and effects to explore if you are of the mind that reality is simply not good enough to share with the people you chat with.

Is this a case of Meta using AI just for the sake of using AI, or do you see it as something that is beneficial and fun? Share your enthusiasm or skepticism in the comments.