Meta Will Soon Start Training its AI Models With Content from EU Users

Meta announced today that it will soon start training its AI models with content from EU users. That will include interaction EU users have with the Meta AI chatbot, plus all public content shared by adults on Facebook and Instagram.

Last month, Meta finally made its Meta AI chatbot available across Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger in the EU, but the company has been delaying its local AI training plans over concerns about compliance with European laws and regulations. Meta has since made it clear it doesn’t use people’s private messages with friends and family to train its generative AI models, and public content from minors is also excluded from AI training.

“We’re following the example set by others including Google and OpenAI, both of which have already used data from European users to train their AI models. We’re proud that our approach is more transparent than many of our industry counterparts,” the company said today.

By training its AI models with content from EU users, Meta says that Meta AI will become more useful by better understanding local cultures, including differences in languages and humor. “This is particularly important as AI models become more advanced with multi-modal functionality, which spans text, voice, video, and imagery,” Meta explained.

Starting this week, EU adults will start receiving in-app and mail notifications to warn them that their public content on Meta platforms and interactions with Meta UI will now be used for AI training. Users will be able to opt out in their account settings, similar to what OpenAI and other chatbot makers offer.

Meta didn’t say anything today about the upcoming availability of the standalone Meta AI web app in the EU, however. A recent report also hinted at the upcoming release of a standalone Meta AI mobile app, which would follow what xAI recently did with its Grok chatbot.