AI AI AI

Several social media platforms are busy testing AI. And what are they using to run these tests? Right, your content. This caused quite a commotion in the social media landscape. Earlier this week, news came out that Adobe has changed its terms and conditions (once again). When the terms were updated the first time, customers feared that Adobe would use their creative work to train its generative AI. And that was not exactly well received by users.

Meta’s AI testing programme

A similar commotion took place on Instagram. There, users received an email from Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, stating that they are in the process of expanding their AI systems. Instagram users massively shared stories and posts asking Instagram to stop the AI programme. But this is actually working counterclockwise. Meta’s terms of use state that they have no ownership rights to your content, but grant them a licence to use it. So this also applies to the AI testing programme. The more you post on the platform, the more content they have to test. And that is exactly what users are falling over.

Say no to AI

This development did not sit well with campaign group None Of Your Business (noyb) as well. According to the organisation, Meta is misusing personal data to train AI and they have therefore also filed a complaint with 11 data protection authorities, including the Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens. For users in the EU, it is possible to opt out of this AI testing programme by unsubscribing via the Instagram app. For users outside the EU, this is unfortunately not possible (yet). For companies and brands that are worried that their content is used for AI testing by Meta, we would definitely recommend looking into this programme and then unsubscribing if it goes against your values.