Meta
, the company that owns
and
, recently announced plans to train its generative artificial intelligence (AI) models, specifically the
Llama language models
, using the publicly shared social media content by users in Europe. After receiving some backlash on the same, the company has now detailed how it will use the publically available content on its social media platforms, and pointed out that it is not the first company to do it by saying that
and Microsoft-backed
OpenAI
has done the same.
"Meta is not the first company to do this – we are following the example set by others, including Google and OpenAI, both of which have already used data from European users to train AI," the company said in a blog post.
"Our approach is more transparent and offers easier controls than many of our industry counterparts already training their models on similar publicly available information," it added.
Meta notifying users in Europe, the UK about their data usage
Recently, the company sent notifications and emails to users in the UK and European Union (EU) detailing how they will use their data to train its AI models.
"We want to be transparent with people so they are aware of their rights and the controls available to them. That’s why, since May 22, we’ve sent more than two billion in-app notifications and emails to people in Europe to explain what we’re doing. These notifications contain a link to an objection form that gives people the opportunity to object to their data being used in our AI modelling efforts," it said.
Why Meta wants to use people's public data to train its models
Meta has provided a reason why it wants to use the publicly available data of its users in Europe.
"To properly serve our European communities, the models that power AI at Meta need to be trained on relevant information that reflects the diverse languages, geography and cultural references of the people in Europe who will use them," the company said, adding that it will be using content that people have chosen to make public to build the foundational
AI model
that it releases openly.
"If we don’t train our models on the public content that Europeans share on our services and others, such as public posts or comments, then models and the AI features they power won’t accurately understand important regional languages, cultures or trending topics on social media. We believe that Europeans will be ill-served by AI models that are not informed by Europe’s rich cultural, social and historical contributions," it added.
The company, however, said that it will not train Llama models on content from accounts of Europeans under the age of 18.
English (US) ·