Meta Uses Your Instagram And Facebook Photos To Train AI—Here's How To Turn It Off
Meta uses public Instagram and Facebook photos to train its AI model, but they've made it difficult to object to it.
If you're already worried about AI advancements and privacy issues, I have bad news.
According to Business Insider, giant tech firms are "scrambling" to train AI data, but Meta has the advantage, thanks to its user base. Chris Cox – Meta's chief product officer – said they will use publicly available pictures and text from their social media platforms to train Emu, their latest text-to-image generator model.
Starting June 26, 2024, Facebook will update its privacy policy concerning generative AI features, including Meta AI. Their AI will analyze your selfies and other posts to enhance their AI Creative Tools and services. Meta is sharing information about this change on Facebook, and people are rushing to opt out of the feature.
Cox claims they're not using "private" stuff and will only use public content, but they don't clarify whether private profiles will be affected. "We don't train on private stuff, we don't train on stuff that people share with their friends, we do train on things that are public," he told Bloomberg's Tech Summit on Thursday. He added that Meta's text-to-image model can generate "really amazing quality images" since Instagram has so many photos of "art, fashion, culture and also just images of people and us." Yay. I can't wait for my likeness to be used and for Meta to gain traffic (and possibly profit) from it!
Women already have to be worried about strangers on the internet taking their images to create nonconsensual, explicit photos of them. Now, they have to worry about Instagram taking their selfies, too. And while Meta won't do anything "inappropriate" with its users' photos, do we really want a giant tech firm having access to our likeness?
How To Change Your Settings To Not Train AI
Here's how you can opt-out, but be warned: It's not done with a click of a button – you have to fill out a form to request to object.
Chances are that you've seen a notification regarding Meta's AI on Facebook. Click on it, and then on "right to object." You'll see a pop-up regarding their policy updates. "If your objection is honoured, it will be applied going forwards," the statement on the pop-up reads. If. Meaning they can reject your request.
You will be taken to the form once you close out of the notice. Fill it out and follow the next steps, and you're done.
For Instagram, open the app and click on the hamburger menu in the top right corner. Scroll down to the bottom and tap on the following in order: Help > Help Center > About AIs on Instagram > How Meta uses information for generative AI models. Then, scroll to the bottom to find and fill out the object form.
What To Do if You Can’t Find a Way To Opt-Out
Social media users are already reporting that they can't find a way to object, and there aren't many sources on how to object on Instagram. If you don't have your Facebook account linked to your Instagram, users have reported that you don't have access to a form.
Additionally, users have reported that the links to the form on Facebook are not working. Why is Meta making it so hard to reject their use of our photos?
I guess now's the time to delete my Instagram account.
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