More and more companies out there are getting on board with the AI train, and they’re not afraid to use your data to fuel their machine learning models. You know, those privacy policies and terms of use that no one ever bothers to read? Well, they’re changing, my friends. Big players like Twitter, Microsoft, Instacart, Meta (or what used to be Facebook), and Zoom are all jumping on this bandwagon, updating their policies to allow the collection of user information for AI training.
It’s crazy to think that even your tweets, web searches, and grocery shopping habits are now fair game for companies to gather data and build these fancy predictive tools. Take Bard and ChatGPT, for example, which are owned by OpenAI and backed by Microsoft. They’re using your information to train these AI models. Zoom faced some backlash when it was revealed that they might be using your video calls to train their language model for AI, but they quickly changed their tune and clarified that they wouldn’t be doing that.
But let me tell you, this hasn’t stopped other companies from joining the AI party. Rev, the transcription tool, is one of the latest to update its terms of service. They now have a section called “Your content, including services output,” where they state that they have the license to use all the content you upload, whether it’s public or private. And they’re not just using it for transcription purposes, oh no! They’re using it to improve their AI models too.
Rev isn’t the only one making changes. Instacart, the online grocery shopping platform, also made some updates to its terms and conditions. They added a little clause that says you can’t use their content or data to create or train AI tools. But, and here’s the sneaky part, they also added language that gives them the right to use your data to enhance their own machine learning algorithms. That’s right, they want to use your information to improve their services.
And guess what? Not everyone is being clear about these changes. Microsoft’s updated terms talk about using your inputs and outputs for monitoring and preventing abuse, but they don’t go into much detail. Google is just as vague, mentioning that they can use your data for operating and improving their services, including creating new features and functionalities.
Twitter, under the ownership of Elon Musk, is one of the few platforms that straight up tells you they’re using your data for training their AI models. They’ve been upfront about it since Elon started his AI project. And Meta (formerly known as Facebook) isn’t holding back either. They updated their privacy policy to let you know that your activity and information can be used to train their generative AI models. So, everything from your status updates to your Instagram photos might be part of their AI training data sets.
Look, I get it. Companies want to push the boundaries of AI and develop amazing new tools. But it’s important to be aware of what we’re signing up for. So, read those privacy policies, guys. And if you’re not comfortable with your data being used for AI training, you might want to consider opting out. Just make sure to check if the company actually honors your request. Stay informed, my friends.
