But what about ALL OF THE OTHER AI PLATFORMS????
Did you know that ALL of your published “public” content on Facebook and Instagram is being used by Meta to train its AI? (I’ll get back to that “public” part in a bit). AI is everywhere, and is one of the biggest buzz words across the globe right now. It’s inescapable, just try to search anything on Google, Facebook, or Instagram, AI is there ready to “help.” But how does AI do what it does? When I asked Google, this is what Google AI said (is it weird that AI answered my question about AI…) “Artificial intelligence (AI) is a branch of computer science that uses algorithms, data, and computational power to simulate human intelligence. The goal of AI is to enable machines and software to perform tasks that usually require human intelligence. Examples include learning, problem-solving, reasoning, perception, and language understanding.” In short, AI uses algorithms to “learn,” and the more content available, the faster, and in theory, better it will learn. This is where your social media content comes into play. Meta went ahead and opted everyone into their AI machine.
In the EU you are able to opt-out, but for the rest of us, well… The rest of us can file an “objection” but that’s it. Some probably don’t care if the AI machines use their content. After all, some AI isn’t great at creating images of living things. But you wonder why does AI keep making people have too many hands, eyes, or legs? It’s fairly universal that we all have 10 digits, two eyes and two legs. However, creative types in particular may find this auto opt-in extra troublesome. Artists, musicians, and other creatives have already had issue with AI in various formats, and social media can be a great place to share their creations, but don’t want artificial creations mimicking their originality.
Now, it’s not new that Meta is using your data, pretty much every website is using your data for its algorithms. There are various laws restricting the use of your data. But the fact is, they have it and they are using it. But before you get terribly upset that your data is all over the place, keep in mind, the more content you engage with, the more the algorithms learn what you enjoy. Love cat videos? The more you watch, the more that will be fed to your feed for your viewing pleasure. It’s a bit of a catch 22 really.
Now remember how in the opening line I said “public.” The reason I am using quotations is because Meta is saying only content that you shared publicly is being used. This means that content shared only with your friends, or select audiences should be used for the AI training. I’m hearing some grumblings online that not everyone trusts that the only content being used is in fact your public-facing content. But, that is what Meta reported.
It’s Not Just Meta AI
When we talk about Meta AI, the generation understanding appears to be the AI that appears on the platform itself. Meaning, the Meta AI logo that has appeared in your search bars and the AI options users are seeing when creating posts. BUT, there is more to it. Simply visit https://ai.meta.com/meta-ai/ and you will find a ChatGPT-like AI platform. Here you are prompted to “Ask Meta AI Anything.”
Now, when you see the mass functionality here, it looks an awful lot like ChatGPT. This may get the average person asking…”well, if Meta AI is using my social media content…where is Open AI (the parent of ChaptGPT) farming information from?” For fun, we through that question out to Google, and the new Google AI gave us this: “ChatGPT, an AI language model developed by OpenAI, gets its data from a variety of sources on the internet, including:
Publicly available information: Books, social media posts, news articles, Wikipedia articles, and other webpages…”
Notice that part about social media posts? When put directly into Chat GPT, we get “Social Media: Limited data from public platforms.” And, now we are down the rabbit hole, right? What can you do? You can move off the grid if that’s your scene. Or consider posting less to social media. You can be more thoughtful in what you post. You can wait and see what laws get passed regarding AI. Or, you can file an objection with Meta. This Wired article also goes into more detail about how your data is used. Keep in mind, anything already out on the web has likely already been fed into these programs.
Will you be filing an objection to Meta?
*This article has been edited since its initial publication date to discuss the sourcing of content from other AI platforms as well.