1. Using Public Information
2. Enhanced Oversight by Irish Regulator
3. Conclusion

Meta has announced the use of publicly available data from adult users on Facebook and Instagram in the UK to train its artificial intelligence models.

Using Public Information

Meta stated it will use public information such as posts, comments, photos, and captions from adult users in the UK on Facebook and Instagram to enhance its generative AI models for Meta’s features and experiences. In July, Meta paused AI releases in the European Union following the Irish Data Protection Commission’s (DPC) orders to halt its AI assistant rollout in the EU due to data privacy concerns. Meta claims it uses data from Facebook and Instagram users to train its AI models with user consent and offers an opt-out option. —We’re building AI at Meta to reflect the diverse communities around the world and we look forward to launching it in more countries and languages later this year,— Meta said.

Enhanced Oversight by Irish Regulator

The Data Protection Commission (DPC), the Irish supervisory authority for the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), has been increasing its oversight. On September 12, it started a cross-border investigation into Google Ireland Limited to determine whether Google followed EU data protection laws while developing ITS artificial intelligence model. The regulator will investigate the use of EU citizens’ personal data in training Google’s Pathways Language Model 2 (PaLM2). Introduced on May 10, 2023, PaLM2 is an advanced language model featuring enhanced multilingual, reasoning, and coding abilities. The DPC also investigated the social media platform X, and the investigation concluded after X agreed to meet the required compliance standards.

Conclusion

Overall, Meta continues to develop its AI models using public user data. Meanwhile, Irish regulators are tightening oversight on data usage for AI training to ensure compliance with data protection laws.

In all, the actions by Meta and Irish regulators highlight the importance of ensuring data privacy and security in the development and use of AI technologies.