Meta to begin training AI on public posts from UK Facebook and Instagram users

Facebook and Instagram parent firm Meta has said it will soon begin training its AI models using public posts to the social media sites from UK adults.

The US tech giant said it would begin the process in the coming months after positive discussions with the UK’s data protection regulator, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

AI at Meta tools have not yet launched in the UK or EU because of previously raised regulator concerns about the plans, and the tech giant and the EU remain in deadlock on the issue.

But Meta said it had “engaged positively” with the ICO and said that the regulator had now given the scheme the green light.

“This clarity and certainty will help us bring AI at Meta products to the UK much sooner,” Meta said in a blog post.

“We welcome the ICO’s guidance supporting Meta’s implementation of the legal basis of ‘Legitimate Interests’, which can be a valid legal basis for using certain first party data to train generative AI models for our AI at Meta features and experiences.”

The social media giant said it would not use people’s private messages with friends and family to train AI at Meta models, and that it does not use information from accounts of those in the UK under the age of 18.

It said it would use public information – public posts, comments, public photos and captions – from the accounts of adult users on Instagram and Facebook to “improve generative AI models for out AI at Meta features and experiences”.

The company said that from next week, UK users on the two platforms would start to receive in-app notifications to explain the scheme, as well as guidance on how to access an objection form where they can opt out from their data being used to train the firm’s AI models.

Meta added that it had also incorporated feedback from the ICO to make its objection form “simpler, more prominent and easier to find”.

Stephen Almond, executive director regulatory risk at the ICO, said it would “monitor the situation” in the coming weeks.

He added: “We have been clear that any organisation using its users’ information to train generative AI models to be transparent about how people’s data is being used.

“Organisations should put effective safeguards in place before they start using personal data for model training, including providing a clear and simple route for users to object to the processing. The ICO has not provided regulatory approval for the processing and it is for Meta to ensure and demonstrate ongoing compliance.”

Former deputy prime minister Sir Nick Clegg, now president of global affairs at the tech giant said the company was “pleased” to launch the scheme in the UK as well as Brazil.

In a post to X, formerly Twitter, he said: “This is good news for innovation in both countries – it means we can bring our AI at Meta products to both the UK and Brazil much sooner, and that our generative AI models will understand local culture, history and idiom.

“Unfortunately, our plans to train our AI models to understand the EU’s rich cultural, social and historical contributions remain paused while EU regulators remain unable to agree how the law should be applied.”