Meta to Begin Training AI on User Data in EU

Meta will begin using content shared by adults in the European Union to train its artificial intelligence models after the European Data Protection Board said the company’s approach met its legal requirements.

The company plans to train its AI using public content — including public posts and comments shared by adults on its products in the EU — and people’s questions, queries and other interactions with Meta AI, Meta said in a Monday (April 14) blog post.

Meta will not use public data from account holders in the EU who are under the age of 18, people’s private messages with family and friends, or data from users who submit an objection form provided by the company, according to the post.

The company launched Meta AI in the EU in March and plans to make its chat function available for free across the region within its messaging apps: Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger, per the post.

“We believe we have a responsibility to build AI that’s not just available to Europeans, but is actually built for them,” the post said.

By training its generative AI models on data from EU users, it will be better able to understand European dialects, colloquialisms, hyper-local knowledge and other aspects so it can serve the region’s users, according to the post.

“It’s important to note that the kind of AI training we’re doing is not unique to Meta, nor will it be unique to Europe,” the post said. “This is how we have been training our generative AI models for other regions since launch. We’re following the example set by others including Google and OpenAI, both of which have already used data from European users to train their AI models.”

It was reported in July that Meta decided to withhold what was at the time its latest multimodal AI model from the EU, citing an “unpredictable” regulatory environment in the region.

The company’s retreat stemmed from uncertainties surrounding compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), particularly AI model training using user data from its products.

In June, a European privacy group said it filed complaints with 11 European countries, arguing that Meta’s use of user data in its proposed AI practices violated the GDPR.

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