Social network Meta has announced it will begin using publicly available content from European users to train its artificial intelligence models, resuming a process that was suspended last year after activists raised concerns about data protection.
The company that owns Facebook and Instagram said it would train its AI systems based on public posts and comments made by adult users in the 27-nation European Union.
“User interactions with Meta AI — such as questions and queries — will also be used to train and improve our models,” the company said in a blog post.
Meta made the move after it launched its Meta AI assistant to users in Europe last month, although it was not available in the US and other major markets until much later.
The company's efforts to train AI have faced challenges due to strict EU data protection laws that give users control over how their personal information is handled.
The Vienna-based group NOYB, led by activist Max Schrems, has written to various national privacy regulators to complain about Meta's AI training plans and urge them to stop the company before it can train further AI models.
Meta said that in December a group of EU privacy regulators “confirmed” that its initial approach complied with legal requirements.
The company confirmed that it would not use private messages to train its AI model, adding that it was following the example of competitors such as Google and OpenAI, “who have already used European user data to train their AI models.”
Meta announced that it would begin informing EU users about the learning process and provide a link to a form through which they can express their disagreement at any time.
“We will consider all objections received,” the company noted.
Sourse: breakingnews.ie
