Facebook users can now stop Meta from using their personal data in AI training

Generative AI is taking over the world. It helps individuals and businesses be more productive and save time. However, in order for AI to work, companies need to feed the artificial intelligence models with data. Meta, one of the leading players in AI, said that it also collects public information on the web in addition to licensing data from other providers. However the feeding of data has raised concerns about the use of data without consent. To address these concerns, the company has recently updated the Facebook website to add a consent form.

Meta has recently updated the Facebook help center resource section on its website to include a form titled "Generative AI Data Subject Rights," which allows users to submit requests to delete information from third parties that is used to train generative AI models. With the new update, Facebook now allows users to delete some personal information that can be used by Meta to train its generative artificial intelligence models.

In the newly added form, Meta defines third-party information as "data that is publicly available online or licensed from other sources." The company says that this kind of information "can be used to train generative AI models," which "use predictions and patterns to create new content."

However, the form only allows users to delete information from third parties that is used to train generative AI models. It does not allow users to delete information from Meta-owned properties, such as Facebook comments or Instagram photos. This means that the company could still use this first-party data to train its generative AI models.

How to delete your data on Facebook

Regardless, if you would also like to delete your data that Facebook has collected about you and used to train its generative AI models:

• Go to the "Generative AI Data Subject Rights" form on Meta's privacy policy page about generative AI. facebook.com/privacy/genai
• Click on the link that says "Learn more and submit requests here."
• Select the option that best describes your request. The first option lets you access, download, or correct any of your personal information that comes from third-party sources and is used for generative AI training. The second option lets you delete any of that information from those sources. The third option is for anything else that you want to raise.
• After choosing an option, you will have to pass a security check test.

The company is adding an opt-out tool as generative AI technology takes off across tech. Companies are creating more advanced chatbots and turning simple text into sophisticated answers and images. For example, OpenAI uses its GPT-Bot crawlers to crawl the internet and search for information to create new content from existing data, such as text, images, and audio. However, this often raises concerns about the use of data without consent. Raising concerns, many news publications have blocked GPTBot from their site.

Meta is addressing this concern by giving people the option to access, alter, or delete any personal data that was included in the various third-party data sources the company uses to train its large language and related AI models.

In related news, Meta has recently released Code Llama, a new AI model that can generate and discuss code. Code Llama is built on top of Meta's Llama 2 language model, which is known for its ability to produce realistic and diverse outputs.

Addressing how the company is training the Llamaa 2, a Meta spokesperson clarified to CNBC that the company's newest Llama 2 "wasn't trained on Meta user data, and we have not launched any Generative AI consumer features on our systems yet."

Referring to various data privacy rules outside the United States that give consumers more control over how their personal data can be used by tech firms, the spokesperson further added that depending on where people live, they may be able to exercise their data subject rights and object to specific data being used to train Meta's AI models.