A New Frontier: Meta Explores AI Photo Editing for Users
Meta has recently launched an intriguing feature, an opt-in Artificial Intelligence (AI) service labelled by the company as a means to augment the “shareworthiness” of your photos and videos. This new development, however, applies to the images stored on your phone’s camera roll and not those already upped on Facebook. Encouraging users to opt in, Meta claims that their AI will scrutinize your camera roll, transfer your unshared photos to Meta’s cloud platform and highlight “hidden gems” often buried among the multitude of screenshots, receipts and random snaps we all take. Users can then choose to store or share these AI suggested edits and collages, adding a novel experience to their photo sharing routine.
This concept may sound familiar to some, as word of it initially surfaced back in June, during an early testing phase. At the time, Meta insisted that unpublished, private photos weren’t being utilized for AI training while keeping the door slightly ajar for the future. It appears we’ve arrived at that future, and it’s pretty evident that Meta does, in fact, intend to leverage your photos for AI shaping, albeit under specific circumstances. In a Friday announcement the company clearly stated, “We don’t use media from your camera roll to improve AI at Meta unless you choose to edit this media with our AI tools, or share.”
Meta’s AI Learning from Your Camera Roll?
When Meta was asked to clarify the details, the question was if the company will or will not use your camera roll to train its AI if you opt for this feature. We also sought clarity on the timeline of this process: When does Meta actually start using your unpublished photos for AI training? Immediately after you opt in? After you’ve made an edit with the tool or only after you decide to share the edited image?
Meta spokesperson Mari Melguizo clarified: “This means the camera roll media uploaded by this feature to make suggestions won’t be used to improve AI at Meta unless you edit the suggestions with our AI tools or publish those suggestions to Facebook, improvements to AI at Meta may be made.”
So, Meta’s game plan includes collecting and storing your photos in the cloud where the company’s AI will have a gander at them. However, they will only use these photographs to train their AI, provided you perform an additional action, which according to Meta, is the current status quo. The feature states it will “select media from your camera roll and upload it to our cloud on an ongoing basis.” In June, Meta hinted that they might retain some of that data for more than 30 days. Despite this, they assert your media “won’t be used for ad targeting.”
In the past, Meta confessed to already training its AI models on all public photos and text posted to Facebook and Instagram by adult users dating back to 2007.
According to Facebook’s recent blog post, users will be questioned if they want to “allow cloud processing to get creative ideas made for you from your camera roll”. It remains unclear, however, if this prompt will caution users that the feature may help train Meta’s AI on your photos. Designed to assist snap-happy users who’d like to enhance their photos prior to posting, or for those too busy to “create something special,” Facebook has plans to make this feature available in the months ahead.
Article source: The Verge
