Meta's AI feasts on user data
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Illustration: Maura Losch/Axios
As Facebook's parent company has aggressively injected Meta AI into its products, it has fueled its systems with a bounty of customer data.
Why it matters: Meta knows a ton about you and billions of other people. It's counting on that knowledge to build AI that's both powerful and relevant — and it's also limiting customers' ability to say "no" to this use of their information.
Catch up quick: Meta AI has been among the fastest growing of the consumer AI systems, with more than 500 million people using the service each month, company leaders said on last week's earnings call.
- Meta's 20-year history has always been marked by vigorous collection of users' personal data for personalizing content feeds and targeting ads.
Zoom in: Meta says it can use any data shared publicly to Facebook and Instagram to train its AI systems.
- That means the company will use anything that you share with everyone on Facebook (not just with your friends or friends of friends), and anything posted to a standard, non-private Instagram account.
- Meta also says that "your interactions with AI features can be used to train AI models. Examples include messages to AI chats, questions you ask and images you ask Meta AI to imagine for you."
- That also includes photos taken with Meta Ray-Ban glasses that are used as part of an AI query.
- Notably, Meta is also not letting customers opt out of having their data used for training, except for those in Brazil and Europe.
Yes, but: The company does allow customers to delete data from their conversations with the Meta AI chatbot.
- Meta says that any content that users delete — either from conversations with Meta AI or from public posts on Facebook and Instagram — will not be used for future training.
The big picture: Meta has a bold vision for generative AI that involves using the technology to create an array of personalized content.
- The most widely used component is the Meta AI chatbot, which is now accessible from within Facebook, Messenger and WhatsApp (as well as on the Ray-Ban glasses).
Meta is also summarizing comments with AI and has said it will start using generative AI to create new content to fill customers' feeds.
- For starters, it's going to offer up AI-generated images based on customers' real photos. Meta says users will be able to further share those images if they like them, or turn them off if they don't.
- The company has tested a number of other ideas, including a since-ended trial that had Meta AI posting comments in existing threads. That test included a well-publicized case in which the AI chatbot appeared to post as if it were the parent of a disabled child.
Between the lines: Because Meta's services are largely free and ad-supported, the company benefits from people spending more time on them.
- In recent months, Meta has been sharing more existing content that comes from outside one's social network that its algorithms believe people will find engaging. The next step, already telegraphed, is using AI to create content it expects you will like.
What we're watching: Meta is likely to be an early test case for just how compelling AI-generated content can be, especially when turbocharged with a ton of personal information.
- Also worth paying attention to is how the ads Meta shows customers evolve in this world — including whether they begin to be personalized using generative AI.
Go deeper: What AI knows about you
