Meta has discovered a new source of training data for its AI models: its own employees. The company plans to use data culled from its staff’s mouse movements and keystrokes in its quest to build more capable and efficient artificial intelligence.
The article, first reported by Reuters, shows how long it can take for technology companies to find new sources of training data. Training data is the lifeblood of AI models, helping programs learn how to perform tasks more effectively and respond to user queries.
When contacted by TechCrunch for comment, a Meta spokesperson issued the following statement:
“If we’re building an agent to help people use computers to complete everyday tasks, our models need real-world examples of how people do it. actually Use mouse movements, button clicks, drop-down menu interactions, and more. To help with this, certain applications capture this type of input and launch internal tools to help train the model. Safeguards are in place to protect sensitive content and your data is not used for any other purpose. ”
This trend appears to reveal the AI industry’s troubling privacy implications, as yesterday’s internal corporate communications increasingly become the fodder for new corporate supply chains. Last week, it was reported that a legacy startup could be having its corporate communications (from Slack archives, Jira tickets, and other internal messaging platforms) harvested and turned into AI fuel.
