Meta confirmed on Friday that it will begin training its artificial intelligence (AI) models on the public data on Instagram and Facebook in the UK. The company first planned to use this data three months ago, however, the plan was halted due to regulatory concerns. However, the social media giant confirmed that it has now received the nod to proceed with the AI training. The company claimed that this would enable the AI models to reflect the cultures of British users more accurately.
Meta to Train AI on UK Users’ Social Media Data
In a newsroom post, Meta highlighted that it had previously paused the plans to train AI models with user data in the UK after regulatory authorities of the country raised concerns over how the data would be used once collected and how users could opt out of it. However, the company said it had “positive engagement” with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) and is resuming the project. Meta said he will begin training artificial intelligence with this data in the coming months.
The social media boss said the reason for meta-AI training on this data is to better reflect British culture, history and idioms when humans interact with the AI. In addition, it said that the technical team intends to reflect different communities around the world by training on local user data.
Outlining how the company collects data, Meta explains that it does not collect information from users under the age of 18 in the UK. Private data such as messages sent to friends and family has never been used to train the AI. “We use public information – such as posts and public comments, photos and captions – from adult user accounts on Instagram and Facebook,” he added, Meta to Start Training Its AI.
From next week, adult users in the UK will start receiving notifications on Facebook and Instagram showing what Meta does and how it works. Additionally, the posts also explain how users can enter an objection form to prevent Meta from using their data to train AI models. Those who have already opted out will not receive notifications and their information will not be used.
