Meta to start training its AI models on public content in the EU

Summary

Meta announced on Monday that it’s going to train its AI models on public content, such as posts and comments on Facebook and Instagram, in the EU after previously pausing its plans to do so in response to regulatory pressure due to to data privacy concerns. The company will start training its AI on users’ content in the EU this week, it said. Users’ interactions with Meta AI will also be used to train its models. The announcement comes after Meta AI launched in the EU last month, well after its debut in the U.S. and other global markets. While Meta has been training its AI on user-generated content in the U.S. for years, it has faced resistance in the EU due to the bloc’s strict privacy laws, particularly the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which requires a clear legal basis for processing personal data to train AI models. Meta said back in June 2024 that it would pause plans to start training its AI systems using user data in the EU and U.K. following pushback from the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC). The DPC regulates Meta in the EU and was acting on behalf of several data protection authorities across the bloc. In September 2024, Meta said it was restarting efforts to train its AI systems using public posts from its U.K. user base. Last month, it also started to introduce its chatbot Meta AI across the EU with limits on certain features. Fast forward to today, Meta has announced that it will do so with public posts from its EU userbase as well. “Last year, we delayed training our large language models using public content while regulators clarified legal requirements,” Meta said in its blog post. “We welcome the opinion provided by the EDPB in December, which affirmed that our original approach met our legal obligations. Since then, we have engaged constructively with the IDPC and look forward to continuing to bring the full benefits of generative AI to people in Europe.” Starting this week, users in the EU will start receiving in-app and email...