When the Terms of Service Change to Make Way for A.I. Training (2024)

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By Eli Tan

Reporting from San Francisco

Last July, Google made an eight-word change to its privacy policy that represented a significant step in its race to build the next generation of artificial intelligence.

Buried thousands of words into its document, Google tweaked the phrasing for how it used data for its products, adding that public information could be used to train its A.I. chatbot and other services.

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We use publicly available information to help train Google’s language AI models and build products and features like Google Translate, Bard, and Cloud AI capabilities.

The subtle change was not unique to Google. As companies look to train their A.I. models on data that is protected by privacy laws, they’re carefully rewriting their terms and conditions to include words like “artificial intelligence,” “machine learning” and “generative A.I.”

Some changes to terms of service are as small as a few words. Others include the addition of entire sections to explain how generative A.I. models work, and the types of access they have to user data. Snap, for instance, warned its users not to share confidential information with its A.I. chatbot because it would be used in its training, and Meta alerted users in Europe that public posts on Facebook and Instagram would soon be used to train its large language model.

Those terms and conditions — which many people have long ignored — are now being contested by some users who are writers, illustrators and visual artists and worry that their work is being used to train the products that threaten to replace them.

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Our Access to Your Content: We may will only access, view, or listen to your Content through both automated and manual methods, but only in limited ways, and only as permitted by law.

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My AI is an experimental chatbot a chatbot built on generative AI technology designed with safety in mind. It’s a fun way to get information, but it remains an evolving feature so you should always independently check answers provided by My AI before relying on any advice, and you should not share any confidential or sensitive information. Generative AI is a developing technology that may provide responses that are biased, incorrect, harmful or misleading. So, you should not rely on its advice. You should also not share any confidential or sensitive information — if you do, it will be used by My AI.

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When you interact with My AI, we use the information we collect to improve Snap’s products and personalize your experience the content you share and your location (if you have enabled location sharing with Snapchat) to improve Snap’s products, including enhancing My AI’s safety and security, and to personalize your experience, including ads.

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We use the information we collect to provide and operate X products and services. We also use the information we collect to improve and personalize our products and services so that you have a better experience on X, including by showing you more relevant content and ads, suggesting people and topics to follow, enabling and helping you discover affiliates, third-party apps, and services. We may use the information we collect and publicly available information to help train our machine learning or artificial intelligence models for the purposes outlined in this policy.

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No Modifications, Reverse Engineering, Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML)

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Except as expressly permitted in the Terms, you must not (and must not allow third parties to)… use the Services or Software, or any content, data, output, or other information received or derived from the Services or Software, to directly or indirectly create, train, test, or otherwise improve any machine learning algorithms or artificial intelligence system, including but not limited to any architectures, models, or weights.

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When the Terms of Service Change to Make Way for A.I. Training (2024)
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