FACEBOOK OWNER META SEEKS TO TRAIN AI MODEL ON EUROPEAN DATA AS IT FACES PRIVACY CONCERNS

Meta wants to use data from users in privacy-conscious Europe to train its artificial intelligence models, the social media giant said this week as it faces concerns about data protection while battling to keep up with rivals like OpenAl and Google.

The company, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, said that in order to better reflect the “languages, geography and cultural references" of its users in Europe, it needs to use public data from those users to teach its Llama AI large language model.

Meta's AI training efforts are hampered by stringent European Union data privacy laws, which give people control over how their personal information is used. Vienna-based group NOYB, led by activist Max Schrems, complained last week to 11 national privacy watchdogs about Meta's AI training plans and urged them to stop the company before it starts training Llama's next generation.