NEW YORK, BRONX (ORDO News) — Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has employed public posts from these platforms to train its new Meta AI virtual assistant, according to Meta’s President of Global Affairs, Nick Clegg. In an interview with Reuters, Clegg emphasized that the company excluded private posts shared only among family and friends to safeguard user privacy.
The move comes in response to growing concerns about data privacy and the responsible use of personal information.
Balancing Data Access and Privacy
Meta’s approach involves using publicly available data while respecting the privacy boundaries of users. Clegg stated that Meta did not use private chats from its messaging services as training data, and it implemented measures to filter private information from public datasets used for training. He mentioned that the majority of the data used for Meta AI’s training was publicly accessible, and the company avoided incorporating data from platforms like LinkedIn due to privacy considerations.
Addressing Data Usage Concerns
Meta’s strategy aligns with broader concerns about tech companies using web-scraped data without explicit permission to train AI models. Several tech giants, including Meta, Google, and OpenAI, have faced criticism for their data practices and their potential impact on user privacy and intellectual property rights.
Meta AI: A Significant New Product
Meta AI is a crucial product among the company’s first consumer-facing AI tools. It leverages a custom model based on the Llama 2 large language model, designed for public commercial use in July. The virtual assistant can generate text, audio, and imagery and accesses real-time information through a partnership with Microsoft’s Bing search engine.
Safety Restrictions and Copyright Challenges
To address concerns regarding content generated by Meta AI, Meta has imposed safety restrictions, such as a prohibition on creating photo-realistic images of public figures. However, the issue of copyrighted materials remains complex, with potential legal challenges. Clegg anticipates “a fair amount of litigation” to determine whether creative content is covered by existing fair use doctrine.
Conclusion
Meta’s approach to training AI models reflects a delicate balance between data access and user privacy. As AI technology continues to advance, tech companies must navigate the evolving landscape of data usage and copyright concerns while providing innovative solutions to meet consumer needs.
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News agencies contributed to this report, edited and published by ORDO News editors.
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