Meta to start using Europeans' data for AI training

Meta will start using public posts and comments by its European users to train generative artificial intelligence (AI) models from May 27, unless users opt out of the data-mining project.

Meta, the owner of Facebook, Instagram and Threads, said earlier this week that it would develop its AI models with European users' public content and conversations with the Meta AI chatbot.

That means anything from Instagram photo captions to Facebook comments could soon be fair game for Meta AI, though private conversations via its WhatsApp messaging service will be excluded.

According to a privacy notice, this will begin on May 27, though it says users can choose to keep their content out after this date.

Meta users should receive a notification ahead of the May 27 deadline informing them of the policy change and providing a link to the opt-out form.

However, Meta said it could continue to process information by users when they appear in a publicly shared image or are mentioned by another person.

The changes would not apply to the accounts of users under 18, nor to private messages sent to family and friends, Meta said.

AI is an overriding priority for Mark Zuckerberg-owned Meta as for other technology giants, hoping to match the success of ChatGPT.

The group plans to invest $60 to $65 billion this year, with much of the cash going into data centers, servers and network infrastructure necessary to develop AI models.