There’s a lot of controversy around generative AI, particularly when it comes down to the question of “how did it get this good this fast.”
Well, one answer is somewhat glaringly obvious and that is that these models have trained themselves on existing libraries of media.
And that has largely proven to be the case. Whether this is ethical or not probably relies heavily on how the material was sourced.
When it comes to social media platforms like Instagram, the users themselves provide the fodder for the training. After all, as the old adage goes, if something is free, then you are the product. As far as most social media firms are concerned, it is hard to deny this.
Even so, Meta was stopped from training its AI on user content in the European Union after a review via regulatory authorities.
The EU is pretty strict about user data and the uproar over Meta’s training of its AI systems is somewhat blamed for the slower launch of its AI chat assistant in that region. Naturally, services built elsewhere can’t simply be ported over to other regions and this is the case with their AI assistant as Meta claims it wants to deliver a product that is relevant for EU citizens.
“We believe we have a responsibility to build AI that’s not just available to Europeans, but is actually built for them. That’s why it’s so important for our generative AI models to be trained on a variety of data so they can understand the incredible and diverse nuances and complexities that make up European communities. That means everything from dialects and colloquialisms, to hyper-local knowledge and the distinct ways different countries use humor and sarcasm on our products. This is particularly important as AI models become more advanced with multi-modal functionality, which spans text, voice, video, and imagery.”
Yet, even if the issue of provenance of training materials is codified and decided, there is the equal concern of where does all of this sophisticated AI lead as it begins to replace the human element in work.
Any thoughts that you might have on social media platforms training AI on user content are welcome in the comments.
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