Meta announced it will resume training its artificial intelligence (AI) models using U.K. adult user data to better reflect British culture. This follows a delay due to privacy concerns. Despite initial opposition, Meta has now engaged with U.K. regulators and is nearing the launch of its AI products in the U.K. The company clarified that only public data from adult accounts will be used, and users will receive notifications about their data usage.
Meta to Resume Training AI With Data From UK Facebook, Instagram Users
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Meta to Train AI on British Data
Meta, the social media giant, said on Sept.13 that it would resume training AI using content shared by adults on Facebook and Instagram in the United Kingdom in the coming months. Meta said this aims to ensure its generative AI models reflect British culture, history, and idiom. It also means British institutions and companies can utilize the technology.
Confirmation of the U.S. social media giant’s plans to resume AI training in the U.K. came a few months after an Irish privacy regulator asked it to delay training its large language models (LLM) using content shared by adult Facebook and Instagram users. Initially, Meta expressed disappointment with the Irish Data Protection Commission’s (DPC) request, describing it as a “step backward for European innovation and competition in AI development.”
However, in its latest statement, Meta said it has since engaged the Information Commissioner’s Office ( ICO) and commended its approach. The social media giant said its engagements with the ICO are bringing it closer to launching its AI products in the UK.
“This clarity and certainty will help us bring AI at Meta products to the UK much sooner. We welcome the ICO’s guidance supporting Meta’s implementation of the legal basis of ‘Legitimate Interests,’ which can be a valid legal basis for using certain first-party data to train generative AI models for our AI at Meta features and experiences,” the social media giant said.
The social media firm claimed it does not use private messages between friends and family or information obtained from accounts held by those under 18 to train AI for Meta. Instead, the social media giant said it will only use public information from accounts of adult users on Instagram and Facebook.
Meanwhile, Meta disclosed that starting the week of Sept. 16, UK-based adult users of Facebook and Instagram will receive notifications explaining its practices and how those who object to their data being used to train generative AI models can communicate this.
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