Okay, irony off. Irony is a thing AI won’t get anyway. Meta Generative AI is coming soon, but who was waiting for it? I consider myself an AI heavy user, I’m curious to see what AI can do next, only to scare the shit out of myself. But imagine Instagram or Facebook with generative AI — this takes shit to a different level.

I was already concerned when Spotify announced it was training its AI with artists’ music because it seems like a logical step going from AI-generated algorithms to AI-generated music. This makes life even harder for original content creators, as it undermines the creative process and becomes another source for a flood of fake news. If you feel masochistic enough to read the comment sections on social media these days, you’ll get the feeling that this will find fertile ground. And the way Meta rolls out GenAI is so shady, I would rather not contribute to that.

It’s not like, “Hey, we wanna roll-out Generative AI; are you interested in training it with your content?” No, it’s hidden somewhere in the Meta-Verse. And you cannot just say no to your content being used for training AI; “you have to submit a bloody good reason for objecting for us to approve your request”, as Threads user Matt Navarra points out. You have to fill out a form and explain, why do you don’t want to make Meta the happiest place on virtual earth?

If you don’t know any reasons, here are mine:

• I prefer user-generated content because it’s a social network, not a socAIl network
• AI-generated content is a degradation of the human, creative creation process
• AI cannot recognize art and satire, which significantly increases the risk of fake news and manipulation, I don’t want to contribute to that
• AI-generated content is most likely to be favored by Meta and its algorithm, and is thus at the expense of user-generated content
• Meta is already abusing its market power to promote paid content and “recommendations” over the content of the people I follow and the content I really want to see

These were just a few points I included. You also have to provide your email address to get an opt-out mail with a verification code. According to Meta, the objection request is reviewed in accordance with relevant data protection laws. I guess that depends on the country you live in because you have to choose that from a drop-down menu, too. If your request is honored, it will be applied going forward. So far, so good. Sound like a lot of effort, doesn’t it? But think again: this would still be too easy. In the next paragraph, Meta acknowledges the following:

“We may still process information about you to develop and improve Al at Meta, even if you object or don’t use our Products and services. For example, this could happen if you or your information:

• Appear anywhere in an image shared on our Products or services by someone who uses them
• Are mentioned in posts or captions that someone else shares on our Products and service”

“ANYWHERE… on our products or services”… that is like a big eff you, we’ll use your data anyway. In Germany, it’s almost impossible to communicate without WhatsApp. I have like ten different and more secure messengers on my phone, but with whom am I communicating if no one is using it?

I really don’t like where this is going, and I think it’s time to leave Meta eventually. Unfortunately, I need that for work, and people are too lazy to switch to better messenger. Maybe it requires a hard cut here to educate the people around me?