Technology
Facebook’s new button lets its AI look at photos you haven’t uploaded yet
Meta has rolled out an opt-in AI feature to its US and Canadian Facebook users that claims to make their photos and videos more “shareworthy.” The only catch is that the feature is designed for your phone’s camera roll — not the media you’ve already uploaded to Facebook. If you opt in, Meta’s AI will comb through your camera roll, upload your unpublished photos to Meta’s cloud, and surface “hidden gems” that are “lost among screenshots, receipts, and random snaps,” the company says. Users will be able to save or share the suggested edits and collages.
If Facebook wanting to look at your unpublished photos sounds familiar, it might be because we wrote about an early test in June. At that time, the company claimed unposted, private photos were not being used to train Meta’s AI, but it declined to rule out whether it would do so in the future.
Well, the future is now, and it sure sounds like Meta wants to train its AI on your photos — under certain conditions. In the Friday announcement of the feature, Meta says, “We don’t use media from your camera roll to improve AI at Meta, unless you choose to edit this media with our AI tools, or share.”
The Verge asked Meta to confirm: Meta will use your camera roll to train its AI if you choose to use this feature, right? We also asked for clarification on when Meta begins using your unpublished photos to train its AI. Does it happen when you opt into the new feature? After you choose to edit something with the tool? Or only after you choose to share the resulting creation?
Meta spokesperson Mari Melguizo sent us the following clarification: “This means the camera roll media uploaded by this feature to make suggestions won’t be used to improve AI at Meta. Only if you edit the suggestions with our AI tools or publish those suggestions to Facebook, improvements to AI at Meta may be made.”
So, Meta will collect and store your photos in the cloud and Meta’s AI will get to look at them, but the company won’t use them to train their AI unless you take an additional action — at least for now, according to Meta. Today, the feature says it will “select media from your camera roll and upload it to our cloud on an ongoing basis”; in June, Meta told us that it might hold onto some of that data for longer than 30 days. The company claims your media “won’t be used for ad targeting.”
Last year, Meta acknowledged that it had already quietly trained its AI models on all public photos and text posted to Facebook and Instagram by adult users since 2007.
Facebook’s blog today shows that users will be asked if they want to “allow cloud processing to get creative ideas made for you from your camera roll.” It’s not yet clear if that prompt will also warn users that the feature may train Meta’s AI on your photos. The company says the feature is meant to help users who enjoy snapping pics but want to improve their photos before posting, or who don’t have time to “create something special.” Facebook says it’ll roll out the feature in the coming months.
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The LG CLOiD robot and the LG OLED evo AI Wallpaper TV are displayed onstage during an LG Electronics news conference at CES 2026, an annual consumer electronics trade show, in Las Vegas, Jan. 5, 2026. (REUTERS/Steve Marcus)
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Welcome to Fox News’ Artificial Intelligence newsletter with the latest AI technology advancements.
IN TODAY’S NEWSLETTER:
– CES 2026 showstoppers: 10 gadgets you have to see
– Construction giant unveils AI to help prevent job site accidents: ‘It’s essentially a personal assistant’
– Fox News gets exclusive look at company helping businesses nationwide harness AI-powered robots to boost efficiency and fill labor gaps
CES 2026 put health tech front and center, with companies showcasing smarter ways to support prevention, mobility and long-term wellness. (CES)
FUTURE IS NOW: Every January, the Consumer Electronics Show, better known as CES, takes over Las Vegas. It’s where tech companies show off what they’re building next, from products that are almost ready to buy to ideas that feel pulled from the future.
SAFER SITES: Construction equipment giant Caterpillar has unveiled a new artificial intelligence (AI) tool designed to improve job site safety and boost efficiency as the industry grapples with labor shortages.
FUTURE OF WELLNESS: The Consumer Electronics Show, better known as CES, is the world’s largest consumer technology event, and it’s underway in Las Vegas. It takes over the city every January for four days and draws global attention from tech companies, startups, researchers, investors and journalists, of course.
FUTURE OF WORK: As artificial intelligence is rapidly evolving, Fox News got an exclusive look at a company helping businesses nationwide harness AI-powered robots to boost efficiency and fill labor gaps. RobotLAB, with 36 locations across the country and headquartered in Texas, houses more than 50 different types of robots, from cleaning and customer service bots to security bots.
The LG CLOiD robot and the LG OLED evo AI Wallpaper TV are displayed onstage during an LG Electronics news conference at CES 2026 in Las Vegas, Jan. 5, 2026. (REUTERS/Steve Marcus)
COMPUTE CRUNCH: The price tag for competing in the artificial intelligence race is rapidly climbing, fueling demand for advanced computing power and the high-end chips that are needed to support it. Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) CEO Lisa Su said demand for AI computing is accelerating as industries rush to expand their capabilities.
AI GONE WRONG: A California teenager used a chatbot over several months for drug-use guidance on ChatGPT, his mother said. Sam Nelson, 18, was preparing for college when he asked an AI chatbot how many grams of kratom, a plant-based painkiller commonly sold at smoke shops and gas stations across the country, he would need to get a strong high, his mother, Leila Turner-Scott, told SFGate, according to the New York Post.
DR CHAT: ‘The Big Money Show’ panelists weigh in on a report on people turning to ChatGPT for medical and healthcare questions.
‘FUNDAMENTALLY DEFLATIONARY’: OpenAI Board Chair Bret Taylor discusses artificial intelligence’s potential to change traditional work and its increasing use in healthcare on ‘Varney & Co.’
MIND TRAP ALERT: Artificial intelligence chatbots are quickly becoming part of our daily lives. Many of us turn to them for ideas, advice or conversation. For most, that interaction feels harmless. However, mental health experts now warn that for a small group of vulnerable people, long and emotionally charged conversations with AI may worsen delusions or psychotic symptoms.
A California teenager sought drug-use guidance from a ChatGPT chatbot over several months while preparing for college, his mother told SFGate, according to the New York Post. (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)
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These AI projects include Prometheus, the first of several supercluster computing systems, which is expected to come online in New Albany, Ohio, sometime this year. Meta is funding the construction of new nuclear reactors as part of the agreements, the first of which may come online “as early as 2030.” These announcements are part of Meta’s ongoing goal to support its future AI operations with nuclear energy, having previously signed a deal with Constellation to revive an aging nuclear power plant last year.
Financial information for the agreements hasn’t been released, but Meta says that it will “pay the full costs for energy used by our data centers so consumers don’t bear these expenses.”
“Our agreements with Vistra, TerraPower, Oklo, and Constellation make Meta one of the most significant corporate purchasers of nuclear energy in American history,” Meta’s chief global affairs officer, Joel Kaplan, said in the announcement. “State-of-the-art data centers and AI infrastructure are essential to securing America’s position as a global leader in AI.”
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