Meta pauses European AI promotion plan

Meta announced on Friday that it is suspending its promotion plans for its artificial intelligence assistant in Europe due to opposition from the Irish privacy regulator.

In a blog post, Meta stated that the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) has requested them to delay using publicly available content from Facebook and Instagram profiles to train their large language models.

Meta expressed "disappointment" and emphasized that they have been incorporating feedback from regulatory authorities since March of this year and have notified European data protection agencies. According to the Irish Independent, Meta has recently started notifying European users, collecting their data, and providing an opt-out option in an effort to comply with European privacy regulations.

Meta stated that they will continue to work with the DPC. However, in their blog post, Meta also pointed out that Google and OpenAI have been "using European people's data to train AI" and claimed that if regulatory agencies do not allow them to use user information to train models, Meta can only offer a subpar product experience. "In short, without including local information, we can only provide a second-rate experience for people. This means that we are currently unable to launch Meta AI in Europe."

On the other hand, European regulatory authorities welcome Meta's suspension plan.

Stephen Almond, the Executive Director of Regulatory Risk at the UK Information Commissioner's Office, stated in a statement, "We are pleased that Meta has reflected on our concerns and responded to our call for a pause and review of their plans to use Facebook and Instagram user data to train generative AI."

The DPC's request came after a campaign launched by the organization NOYB (None Of Your Business), which submitted 11 complaints against Meta in multiple European countries, according to Reuters. Max Schrems, the founder of NOYB, told the Irish Independent that the key issue of the complaints is the legal basis for Meta's collection of personal data. "Meta basically says that as long as it's done with AI technology, it can use any data from any source for any purpose and provide it to anyone in the world," Schrems said. "This clearly contradicts GDPR compliance."