Meta to Start Using Public Posts on Facebook, Instagram in UK to Train AI

Meta AI logo is seen in this illustration taken May 20, 2024. (Reuters)
Meta AI logo is seen in this illustration taken May 20, 2024. (Reuters)
TT

Meta to Start Using Public Posts on Facebook, Instagram in UK to Train AI

Meta AI logo is seen in this illustration taken May 20, 2024. (Reuters)
Meta AI logo is seen in this illustration taken May 20, 2024. (Reuters)

Meta Platforms will begin training its AI models using public content shared by adults on Facebook and Instagram in the UK over the coming months, the company said, after it had paused the training in the region following a regulatory backlash.

The company will use public posts including photos, captions and comments to train its generative artificial intelligence models, it said on Friday, adding that the training content will not include private messages or information from accounts of users under the age of 18.

The update follows Meta's decision in mid-June to pause the launch of its AI models in Europe after the Irish privacy regulator told the company to delay its plan to harness data from social media posts.

The company had then said the delay would also allow it to address requests from Britain's Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).

"Since we paused training our generative AI models in the UK to address regulatory feedback, we've engaged positively with the ICO ... this clarity and certainty will help us bring AI at Meta products to the UK much sooner," Meta said on Friday.

Facebook and Instagram users in the UK will start receiving in-app notifications from next week explaining the company's procedure and how users can object to their data being used for the training, Meta added.

In June, the company's plans faced backlash from advocacy group NOYB, which urged national privacy watchdogs across Europe to stop such use of social media content, saying the notifications were insufficient to meet EU's stringent EU privacy and transparency rules.



Latest US Strike on China's Chips Hits Semiconductor Toolmakers

Flags of China and US are displayed on a printed circuit board with semiconductor chips, in this illustration picture taken February 17, 2023. REUTERS/Florence Lo/Illustration/File Photo
Flags of China and US are displayed on a printed circuit board with semiconductor chips, in this illustration picture taken February 17, 2023. REUTERS/Florence Lo/Illustration/File Photo
TT

Latest US Strike on China's Chips Hits Semiconductor Toolmakers

Flags of China and US are displayed on a printed circuit board with semiconductor chips, in this illustration picture taken February 17, 2023. REUTERS/Florence Lo/Illustration/File Photo
Flags of China and US are displayed on a printed circuit board with semiconductor chips, in this illustration picture taken February 17, 2023. REUTERS/Florence Lo/Illustration/File Photo

The United States on Monday launched its third crackdown in three years on China's semiconductor industry, curbing exports to 140 companies including chip equipment maker Naura Technology Group, among other moves.

The effort to hobble Beijing's chipmaking ambitions also hits Chinese chip toolmakers Piotech and SiCarrier Technology with new export restrictions as part of the package, which also takes aim at shipments of advanced memory chips and more chipmaking tools to China.

The move is one of the Biden administration's last large-scale efforts to stymie China's ability to access and produce chips that can help advance artificial intelligence for military applications, or otherwise threaten US national security.

It comes just weeks before the swearing-in of Republican former president Donald Trump, who is expected to retain many of Biden's tough-on-China measures, according to Reuters.

The package includes curbs on China-bound shipments of high bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, critical for high-end applications like AI training; new curbs on 24 additional chipmaking tools and three software tools; and new export curbs on chipmaking equipment made in countries such as Singapore and Malaysia.

Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said the action aims to prevent "China from advancing its domestic semiconductor manufacturing system, which it will use to support its military modernization."

Reuters first reported many companies involved and key details of the plan.

The tool controls will likely hurt Lam Research, KLA and Applied Materials, as well as non-US companies like Dutch equipment maker ASM International .

Among Chinese companies facing new restrictions are nearly two dozen semiconductor companies, two investment companies and over 100 chipmaking tool makers.

The companies include Swaysure Technology Co, SiEn Qingdao, and Shenzhen Pensun Technology Co, work with China's Huawei Technologies, the telecommunications equipment leader once hobbled by US sanctions and now at the center of China's advanced chip production and development.

They will be added to the entity list, which bars US suppliers from shipping to them without first receiving a special license.

Asked about the US curbs, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian said such behaviour undermined the international economic trade order and disrupted global supply chains.

China will take measures to safeguard the rights and interests of its firms, he added at a regular press briefing on Monday.

The Chinese commerce ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

China has stepped up its drive to become self-sufficient in the semiconductor sector in recent years, as the US and other countries have restricted exports of the advanced chips and the tools to make them. However, it remains years behind chip industry leaders like Nvidia in AI chips and chip equipment maker ASML in the Netherlands.

The US also is poised to place additional restrictions on Semiconductor Manufacturing International, China's largest contract chip manufacturer, which was placed on the Entity List in 2020 but with a policy that allowed billions of dollars worth of licenses to ship goods to it to be granted.

For the first time, the US will add three companies that make investments in chips to the entity list. Chinese private equity firm Wise Road Capital, tech firm Wingtech Technology Co and JAC Capital because of their role "in aiding China’s government’s efforts to acquire entities with sensitive semiconductor manufacturing capability critical to the defense industrial bases of the United States and its allies with the objective of relocating these entities to China."

Companies seeking licenses to ship to firms on the Entity List generally get denied.

DUTCH AND JAPANESE EXEMPTED

An aspect of the new package that addresses the foreign direct product rule could hurt some US allies by limiting what their companies can ship to China.

The new rule will expand US powers to curb exports of chipmaking equipment by US, Japanese, and Dutch manufacturers made in other parts of the world to certain chip plants in China.

Equipment made in Israel, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan is subject to the rule while Japan and the Netherlands will be exempt.

The expanded foreign direct product rule will apply to 16 companies on the entity list that are seen as the most important to China's most advanced chipmaking ambitions. The rule will also lower to zero the amount of US content that determines when certain foreign items are subject to US control. That will allow the US to regulate any item shipped to China from overseas if it contains any US chips.

The new rules are being released after lengthy discussions with Japan and the Netherlands, which, along with the United States, dominate the production of advanced chipmaking equipment.

The United States plans to exempt countries that adopt similar controls, the people said.

Another rule in the package restricts memory used in AI chips that correspond with what is known as "HBM 2" and higher, technology made by South Korea's Samsung and SK Hynix and US-based Micron.

Industry sources expect only Samsung Electronics to be affected. Analysts estimate Samsung generates about 30% of its HBM chip sales from China.

The latest rules are the third major package of chip-related export curbs on China adopted under the Biden administration.

In October 2022, the United States published a sweeping set of controls on sale and manufacture of certain high-end chips that was considered to be the biggest shift in its tech policy toward China since the 1990s.