There are five stages of grief, but only two stages of discovering the little Meta AI circle on your WhatsApp screen. Fear, then fury.

When I first saw the small blue-and-purple hoop last week, I was terrified that it meant I was now livestreaming my life to the entire metaverse, something I presumed I had agreed to when accepting but (of course) not reading the terms and conditions. As the saying goes, if you’re not paying for the product, you are the product.

The relief that I hadn’t broadcast my most horrified expression to the world was short-lived. At least it was possible to delete that free U2 album that Apple foisted on its customers in 2014; there is no way to remove Meta AI from WhatsApp. I didn’t – don’t – want Meta AI. If I liked it, I would have put the ring on it. But I don’t, so I didn’t. I........

© The Guardian