Artificial intelligence is rapidly personalizing the internet, but at the cost of user control. Millions of Google Mail users recently found themselves with AI-powered email summaries enabled by default, a change they did not request. This follows a similar move from Google two years prior, when AI Overviews—automatically generated search responses—were added to search results without an easy way to disable them.
Meta has taken a similar approach, integrating its AI chatbot, Meta AI, into Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger as a non-removable feature. The result is an increasingly tailored online experience: ads, recommendations, and even prices vary from user to user based on their interactions with these AI systems.
The key point: this personalization is happening without clear consent or easy opt-out options.
Sasha Luccioni, an AI ethics researcher at Hugging Face, explains that “these tools are sold to us as more powerful, but we have less say in things… It’s on us to opt out, and it’s usually pretty complicated and not very clear what we should be opting out of.”
This trend reflects a broader shift in tech: companies are prioritizing engagement and data collection over user agency. The internet is becoming less of a shared public space and more of a series of individual, algorithmically curated bubbles.
The lack of transparency and control raises concerns about manipulation, algorithmic bias, and the erosion of privacy. Users are left navigating a system where their own data is used against them, shaping their online experience in ways they may not even realize.
The industry’s current trajectory suggests a future where the internet adapts to you, whether you want it to or not.
