Meta AI meets a roadblock in Europe and will not be launched yet due to serious privacy concerns. This expected development became real after alarms were raised concerning what the new product might do to the European people.
According to the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC), negotiations are still ongoing. The topic on the table is whether Meta should be allowed to train its AI models with information that were shared by European users of products like Facebook and Instagram.
Thought AI machines are being trained with public data found in the internet, the use of personal information from unwitting social media users for the same purpose is a disturbing move. And though Meta found nothing wrong with sharing people’s pictures, videos, and other posted files with their AI, they must wait at Europe’s roadblock till further notice.
AI has the ability to discover things about people that they would not like to share with the world. Meta’s AI models are likely to learn too many things about the European people if the permission were given, since the AIs would have access to most or all their previous posts.
Not only the Irish Authorities are disturbed by the idea. A series of efforts made NOYB (an European NGO) motivated some other countries – France, Belgium, Germany, Greece, Italy, Norway, etc – to oppose the move.
But Meta seems restless now. The company recently said the following:
“This is a step backwards for European innovation, competition in AI development and further delays bringing the benefits of AI to people in Europe.
“We remain highly confident that our approach complies with European laws and regulations. AI training is not unique to our services, and we’re more transparent than many of our industry counterparts.”
However, Meta will have to be patient till they and appropriate authorities make a deal savoury to both sides of the table. Meta shows no sign of preparing to leave the table too.
“We are committed to bringing Meta AI, along with the models that power it, to more people around the world, including in Europe,’ announced Meta.
“But, put simply, without including local information we’d only be able to offer people a second-rate experience. This means we aren’t able to launch Meta AI in Europe at the moment.”
Other AI companies will be watching the two parties closely, since their fate in Europe might be decided by the end of the conversation. If a product like Meta AI meets a roadblock in Europe, which tech firm would not be concerned?
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