Meta will start training its AI models using everyone’s social media posts though European Union users can opt out, a luxury the rest of the world won’t enjoy. The AI training rules kick in worldwide on June 26.

Meta has so far not included its European userbase in its AI training data, presumably to avoid legal conflict with the continent’s privacy regulations. Now it’s pushing ahead with that despite complaints.

As training AI from user data is doubtlessly going to be contentious in Europe, Meta has attempted to cover itself in two ways. Firstly, when it says “public content,” Meta means posts, comments, photos, and other content posted on its social media platforms by users over the age of 18. Private messages are, apparently, strictly verboten from the training data.

I don’t have a FB or Instagram account, I only use Whatsapp because it’s work related.