PARIS: Meta will train its generative artificial intelligence (AI) models with its European users’ public content and conversations with the Meta AI chatbot, the firm said Monday.
The decision represents a major volte-face from the Facebook and Instagram owner, which has previously appeared wary of the European Union’s stringent regulations on the use of personal data.
People based in the EU who use Meta platforms can opt out of having their data used for training purposes, the social networking giant said.
The changes would not apply to the accounts of users under 18, nor to private messages of users to family and friends, the tech giant said on social media.
WhatsApp messenger will for the time being not be affected by the changes.
When Meta AI first launched in the EU, the tech giant was at pains to point out that the chatbot was not trained on data from European users.
Its rollout on the continent was delayed by more than year as a result of overlapping European regulations on emerging technologies, including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), AI and digital markets.
Developing “large language models” (LLMs) like Meta AI requires vast reserves of data, which is heavily regulated in the European Union where it relates to individual users.
AI is an overriding priority for Meta as for other Silicon Valley giants.
The group plans to invest $60-65 billion this year, with much of the cash going into data centers, servers and network infrastructure necessary to develop AI models.
Meta says to train AI models on public data of European users
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Meta says to train AI models on public data of European users
- WhatsApp messenger will for the time being not be affected by the changes
- People based in the EU who use Meta platforms can opt out of having their data used for training purposes
KFC readies finger-licking Japanese Christmas
- The first KFC Christmas campaign was in 1974 and there are different theories about the origins
TOKYO: KFC in Japan is gearing up for the Christmas tradition of millions of families thronging the US fast-food chain for special festive buckets of deep-fried chicken and other treats.
“Reservations for KFC Christmas typically begin around the beginning of November,” Takuma Kawamura, a KFC marketing manager, told AFP at a new upmarket pop-up eatery in Tokyo.
“From that time, stores with the Col. statue will dress him in Christmas attire,” he said, referring to KFC’s late founder Col. Sanders, a widely recognized figure in Japan.
Japan has a tiny Christian majority and Christmas is a secular festival of full-bore consumerism complete with Santa, gifts and streetlights. Couples often go on dates on Christmas Eve.
For food, families often gorge themselves on special “Party Barrels” bursting with chicken, an array of side dishes and a dessert — such as ice cream or cheesecake — stored at the bottom in a separate compartment.
December 24 — Christmas Eve — is KFC Japan’s busiest day by far, with 10 times more customers than normal, the firm said in 2020. Reportedly 3.6 million families make orders.
The first KFC Christmas campaign was in 1974 and there are different theories about the origins.
These include that Takeshi Okawara, the manager of Japan’s first KFC outlet, overheard foreigners pining for turkey, which is often eaten at Christmas in Britain and the United States.
Col. Sanders, who died in 1980, has also entered into baseball folklore in Japan.
Hanshin Tigers supporters threw a plastic statue of the Col. from a KFC restaurant into a river in Osaka in 1985 on their way to winning Japan’s version of the World Series.
This was because fans — many of whom also jumped in the dirty Dotonbori waterway — thought the statue resembled Randy Bass, an American member of the team at the time.
But the dunking spawned the legend of the “Curse of the Colonel” that said the Tigers would never win another title until the effigy was recovered.
The sludge-covered statue was dredged out in 2009, cleaned up and put on display, but it took until 2023 for the Tigers finally to win the championship again.
The plastic Col. was finally disposed of last year following a ritual at a temple attended by KFC’s Japan president, who offered sake and fried chicken.
