Meta Platforms, on Monday, June 10, said that it wants to use data from the users to train its artificial intelligence models in privacy-conscious Europe. Reportedly, while battling to keep up with rivals such as OpenAI and Google, the company is facing concerns about data protections.
The owner of Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp, said that to reflect the languages, geography and cultural references better for its users in Europe, the social media giant requires to use its users’ data to teach its large language model ‘Llama AI’.
“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,” Stefano Fratta, Global Engagement Director – Privacy Policy, Meta, said in blog post.
Meta won’t use private messages to friends and family nor content from European users who are under 18. Fratta further said other companies including Google and OpenAI have already trained on European data.“We believe that Europeans will be ill-served by AI models that are Frattanot informed by Europe’s rich cultural, social and historical contributions,” he added. Since May 22, the company has sent two billion notifications and emails to European users explaining its plans and linking to an online form to opt out, Fratta said.
Strict European Union data privacy rules, which offer individuals control over how their personal information is utilised, impede Meta’s AI training efforts. The activist, Max Schrems, leader of the Vienna-based group NOYB, criticised Meta’s AI training plans to eleven national privacy watchdogs last week, urging them to halt the business before it begins educating Llama’s future generation.
AI language models are trained on vast pools of data that help them predict the most plausible next word in a sentence, with newer versions typically smarter and more capable than their predecessors. Meta’s AI assistant feature has been baked into Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp for users in the U.S. and 13 other countries, but notably not Europe.
Furthermore, the latest version of Meta’s privacy policy is set to take effect on June 26, indicating that training for the next model will start soon after.
(with inputs from AP)