Meta suspends training of its AI in Europe and does not hide its disappointment

Meta is pausing the development of its AI assistant in Europe after receiving objections from the Irish privacy regulator, The Verge reports.

The Irish Data Protection Commission asked the company to postpone training its large language models on content that was publicly posted on Facebook and Instagram profiles.

Meta said it was “disappointed” by the request, as the company informed European regulators back in March. The company also notes that Google and OpenAI have already used European data to train AI.

The tech giant warns that if regulators do not allow the use of user data to train models, Meta will only be able to offer an inferior product. And the company refuses to launch such a product, so the launch of Meta AI will not take place yet.

European regulators, in turn, welcomed this pause.

“We are pleased that Meta has reflected on the concerns we shared from users of their service in the UK, and responded to our request to pause and review plans to use Facebook and Instagram user data to train generative AI,” Stephen Almond, the executive director of regulatory risk at the UK Information Commissioner’s Office, said in a statement.

The advocacy group NOYB (None of Your Business), which has filed 11 complaints against Meta in several European countries, may be responsible for this delay.

NOYB founder Max Schrems said that the complaint was based on the legal basis for Meta’s collection of personal data.

“Meta is basically saying that it can use any data from any source for any purpose and make it available to anyone in the world, as long as it’s done via AI technology,” Schrems said. “This is clearly the opposite of GDPR compliance.”

The General Data Protection Regulation is a regulation on the protection of personal data of all persons located in the European Union and the European Economic Area. The regulation has been in force since April 2016.