1 month ago
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Hundreds of thousands of Instagram users, including actors Julianne Moore and Ashley Tisdale, have shared a post that supposedly revokes Meta's right to train its artificial intelligence tool using their information.
"Goodbye Meta AI," it says before saying the user does "not give Meta or anyone else permission to use any of personal data, profile information or photos".
It doesn't work.
The viral Instagram story, which was also shared by England cricketer Jonny Bairstow, is actually repurposed from an old, equally ineffective meme and Meta sources confirmed to Sky News it does not count as a valid form of objection to their new AI policies.
However, there is a simple way to object that Meta has to honour.
Meta AI is coming
Over the next few months, Meta will start using public posts and information on UK Instagram and Facebook accounts to train its artificial intelligence, Meta AI.
The new rules were supposed to roll out in June but Meta was forced to delay them to deal with changes demanded by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).
Now, because of those changes, the way you can object is "even simpler, more prominent and easier to find", according to Meta.
How to object
In the coming days, Facebook and Instagram users will start receiving notifications explaining what is changing and how to access the objection form.
If a user has already objected through the old form, they will not receive a notification.
That's because Meta says it will "honour their choice" and they will be excluded from the training data by default.
The objection form itself has been simplified from its previous version.
It now takes three clicks and only requires an email address to revoke access to your data.
Anything that is not public on your account, like private posts and messages, will already be excluded from the data used to train Meta AI.
Similarly, private accounts and accounts of under-18s will also be excluded.
You can also object before you receive the notification by going to the Meta's "privacy centre" in your settings and clicking on the "object" hyperlink at the top.
Meta isn't immediately joining new EU AI pact
While Meta has tweaked its AI policy for UK accounts, some say it is holding out in the European Union (EU) because it is not joining a new pact for companies using AI.
Earlier in the year, the EU passed a groundbreaking set of laws called the EU AI Act.
Read more: What is the EU's new Artificial Intelligence Act?
It regulates how AI can be used, and grades different AI uses based on their risk to society.
All companies operating in the EU, including Meta, have to abide by the rules which are slowly coming into force.
Meta says it "welcomes" the new "harmonised" rules.
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However, an interim set of guidelines has been launched called the EU AI Pact, which hopes to get businesses following the new laws without waiting for them to come into full force.
Signatories pledge to commit to governance strategies that comply with the AI Act, identify high-risk AI systems in their business and promote AI literacy among staff.
Over a hundred companies signed up to the pledge, which was announced on Wednesday - but not Meta.
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In a statement to Sky News, the company said it is "focusing on our compliance work under the AI Act at this time" but did not rule out joining the pact in the future.
"We also shouldn't lose sight of AI's huge potential to foster European innovation and enable competition or else the EU will miss out on this once-in-a-generation opportunity."
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