Meta initiates AI education in Germany
Meta, Facebook's parent company, is now authorized to employ artificial intelligence (AI) on a large scale using German user data on Facebook and Instagram for training purposes. The US tech giant aims to analyze all past posts made by users to enhance its AI models. Although users may object to this utilization, the deadline for objections has expired.
WhatsApp, another Meta subsidiary, cannot draw from chat contents due to encryption. Nevertheless, chats with the AI assistant "Meta AI" are deemed open for public use and can be utilized for training purposes.
German court proceedings, initiated by consumer advocates, previously attempted to prohibit Meta from utilizing user data for AI training. The Higher Regional Court of Cologne, however, ruled last Friday that Meta may employ user posts from Facebook and Instagram for training its AI software, Meta AI (Case No. 15 UKl 2/25). The consumer protection center of North Rhine-Westphalia brought forward the lawsuit, alleging a breach of European data protection law.
Following the verdict, a Meta spokesperson declared that the AI training process does not violate any data protection regulations. The spokesperson affirmed Meta's commitment to bringing AI developed in Germany to the wider German and European population.
To date, Meta has struggled to maintain pace with market leaders in the AI competition, according to data from Bitkom, a German digital industry association. A recent survey revealed that Meta lags behind ChatGPT by OpenAI, CoPilot by Microsoft, and Google's Gemini in the use of AI applications by the German populace. Meta's AI language model, Llama, did not even make an appearance in the list of most-used AI applications.
Presented in 2023 as an open-source system, Llama stirred debate among experts. Despite this, concerns persist about Meta's ability to maintain with the pace of US market leaders and even Chinese competitors like DeepSeek. The compliance of Meta's use of user data from Germany for AI training with European data protection law, specifically the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), remains a contentious issue. The Irish Data Protection Commission and the Hamburg Data Protection Commissioner hold reservations about Meta's compliance, and the situation is subject to ongoing legal challenges and potential regulatory shifts.
- In North Rhine-Westphalia, the consumer protection center is the entity that brought a lawsuit against Meta, claiming a breach of European data protection law due to Meta's use of user data for AI training.
- The finance department at Meta, while facing difficulties in maintaining pace with market leaders in AI competition, is committed to utilizing AI developed in Germany and bringing it to the wider German and European population.
- Aside from Facebook and Instagram, Meta's AI language model, Llama, has stirred debate among experts, but concerns persist about Meta's ability to comply with European data protection law, particularly the GDPR, in its use of user data from Germany for AI training.
