"Artists Allege Meta’s AI Data Deletion Request Process Is a ‘Fake PR Stunt’", 26 October 2023

...Artists and writers are fighting for a say in how AI companies use their work, filing lawsuits and publicly agitating against the way these models scrape the internet and incorporate their art without consent.

Some companies have responded to this pushback with “opt-out” programs that give people a choice to remove their work from future models. OpenAI, for example, debuted an opt-out feature with its latest version of the image-to-text generator Dall-E. This August, when Meta began allowing people to submit requests to delete personal data from third parties used to train Meta’s generative AI models, many artists and journalists interpreted this new process as Meta’s very limited version of an opt-out program. CNBC explicitly referred to the request form as an “opt-out tool.”

This is a misconception. In reality, there is no functional way to opt out of Meta’s generative AI training. Artists who have tried to use Meta’s data deletion request form have learned this the hard way and have been deeply frustrated with the process...

...When asked about mounting frustration with this process, Meta responded that the data deletion request form is not an opt-out tool, emphasizing that it has no intention of deleting information found within its own platforms. “I think there is some confusion about what that form is and the controls we offer,” Meta spokesperson Thomas Richards told WIRED via email. “We don’t currently offer a feature for people to opt-out of their information from our products and services being used to train our AI models.”...