Meta, a popular social media company headed by Mark Zuckerberg has reportedly said that it will not launch its Meta AI models in the European market now. The decision was made after the Irish privacy regulator told it to delay its plan to harness data from Facebook and Instagram users.
The U.S.-based social media company has confirmed that the move made by Meta surfaced after the complaints and a call by advocacy group NOYB to data protection authorities in Belgium, France, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain, Ireland, Austria and Germany to act against the company.
At issue is Meta's plan to use personal data to train its artificial intelligence (AI) models without seeking consent, the company said THAT it would use publicly available and licensed online information.
Meta further said that the Irish privacy watchdog had asked it to delay the training of its large language models (LLMs) by using public content which was shared by Facebook and Instagram adult users.
In an updated blogpost, the company said, "We're disappointed by the request from the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC), our lead regulator, on behalf of the European DPAs ... particularly since we incorporated regulatory feedback and the European DPAs have been informed since March."
It said the Irish request is a step backwards for European innovation and competition in AI development.
Meta said, "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."
The DPC welcomed Meta's pause, saying its decision came after intensive engagement with the regulator.
Meta said the delayed launch of its AI models would also allow it to address requests from Britain's Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).
The ICO welcomed Meta's decision, saying it would continue to monitor major developers of generative AI, including Meta, to review the safeguards they have put in place and ensure the information rights of UK users are protected.
NOYB's chair Max Schrems attributed Meta's temporary halt to the group's complaints filed last week.
"So far there is no official change of the Meta privacy policy, which would make this commitment legally binding. The cases we filed are ongoing and will need a determination," he said in a statement.
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Inputs from Reuters
