We will begin training AI at Meta in the coming months, using public content shared by adults on Facebook and Instagram in the UK. This means our generative AI models reflect British culture, history and expression, and that British businesses and institutions can use the latest technology. We’re developing AI at Meta to reflect the diverse communities around the world, and we look forward to rolling it out to more countries and languages ​​later this year.

Since we suspended training of our generative AI models in the UK to respond to regulatory feedback, we have engaged positively with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) and welcome the constructive approach the ICO has taken throughout these discussions. This clarity and certainty will help us bring AI-at-Meta products to the UK much sooner. We welcome the ICO’s guidance supporting Meta’s implementation of the ‘legitimate interests’ legal basis, 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.

Additional transparency

We do not use private messages from people to friends and family to train for AI at Meta, and we do not use information from accounts of people in the UK under the age of 18. We use public information – such as public posts and comments, or public photos and captions – from adult users’ accounts on Instagram and Facebook to improve generative AI models for our AI at Meta features and experiences, including for people in the UK.

From next week, adults in the UK who use Facebook and Instagram will receive in-app notifications explaining what we’re doing, including how they can access an objection form to object to the use of their data to train our generative AI models at any time. We will not contact people who have already objected, as we continue to respect their choice.

While our original approach was more transparent than that of our industry peers, we have incorporated feedback from the ICO to make our appeals form even simpler, more prominent and easier to find. We will consider all appeals forms already received as well as newly submitted ones.