Meta's AI Chatbot Taps User Data With No Opt-Out Option (techcrunch.com) 38
Meta's AI chatbot will now use personal data from users' Facebook and Instagram accounts for personalized responses in the United States and Canada, the company said in a blog post. The upgraded Meta AI can remember user preferences from previous conversations across Facebook, Messenger, and WhatsApp, such as dietary choices and interests. CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the feature helps create personalized content like bedtime stories based on his children's interests. Users cannot opt out of the data-sharing feature, a Meta spokesperson told TechCrunch.
Can't opt out is bullshit (Score:3, Insightful)
There needs to be a class action lawsuit to stop greedy companies from profiting off YOUR data. Not being able to OPT OUT is complete bullshit.
I opted out of FarceBook by never using that crap in the first place but that isn't an option for many people.
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but that isn't an option for many people.
When it comes to things like Facebook, there is no such thing as "not an option". Nobody needs that garbage. If you have a Facebook account YOU are the problem.
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I hate chatbots.
Re: Can't opt out is bullshit (Score:3)
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I dont normally agree with you on much but this is exactly right- if you dont like Facebook then dont be on Facebook.
It's actually quite hard to delete your own facebook account, especially if you never gave them a real phone number, back when they made such things mandatory.
It can be hard to opt out of Facebook (Score:4, Interesting)
Heck a buddy of mine is a fishing nerd and that's how he finds fishing buddies. He managed to land a really nice fishing trip for practically nothing because of connections he made on Facebook. The kind of trip he could not normally afford in his lifetime landed in his lap
And there's a ton of networking opportunities which when you lose your job become very important. Not to mention keeping up with extended family.
Basically Facebook actually does have a use as genuine social media. Meaning a software tool that can be used to form and maintain social connections
I suspect a lot of people, like myself, are introverts so we don't really see the value in that the same way.
One group of nerds I know that could not live without Facebook or the extroverted nerds. People who are nerds not because of some obsession or because their introverts but just because they're kind of weird and off-putting. We don't like to think about those kind of nerds because, well they're kind of weird and off-putting. But I know several of them (since they tend to gravitate towards some of the nerd communities I'm in) and they make expensive use of Facebook in order to access social functions and personal connections They otherwise couldn't.
I guess what I'm saying is yeah Facebook is a truly horrific company and application but when they get their hooks in you they really are in you deep and letting it go isn't that easy. There's a reason why Facebook is actually profitable and Twitter never was. It's because Twitter was never really social media. Twitter was just a way to micro blog. With Facebook you really do have social connections tied up in it and so the amount of vendor locking they have is pretty frightening
Re: It can be hard to opt out of Facebook (Score:2)
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It took me a while to figure out what he was doing. Why every single one of my posts was commented on by a troll but that's why.
It's genuinely hilarious that I'm that important to anyone. I mean besides my kid because they are still using my Netflix account...
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even a simple threaded discussion wiki could meet their needs.
are you sure they are real nerds?
Because not all nerds are techy (Score:4, Interesting)
Those nerds have it pretty bad. Because the things that make them nerds aren't useful to businesses. So they have the disadvantage of being a nerd but they don't have the advantages.
And it's a thousand times worse if they are extroverted nerds. Outside of kids getting their legs blown off in wars or dying of cancer I don't think there's anyone who has a life wars than an extroverted nerd. You're somebody who desperately wants to be around people while simultaneously being someone nobody wants to be around. Typically for characteristics that you just can't help.
One of my nerd buddies is like that. They are an extroverted nerd but they or a black hole where tact goes in and is crushed into physics defying particles. Basically a severe form of autism that makes them blurt out incredibly inappropriate things partially to get attention I suspect but also just because it doesn't occur to them how horrifically inappropriate those things are. Like telling off color jokes at work when your boss is listening and just not understanding why you shouldn't do that that sort of thing but ratcheted up to 11.
We actually in my little nerd community took two of those guys and made a rule that if the other guy would laugh at the joke you shouldn't tell it in mixed company and that actually seems to have worked fairly well for them.
Basically think of that kid that everybody liked to pick on back in grade school and that these days would be a candidate for a mass shooting. Like the kind of kid even the teachers picked on.
there's not a lot of those as a percentage of the population but with 340 million Americans there's a hell of a lot of them overall and Facebook lets them find communities where they can be around people.
I'm an introvert so it's not something I understand on an emotional level but I have enough intellectual empathy to understand why an extrovert feels uncomfortable when they're alone and I can imagine it would suck hard to be alone because of your physical characteristics or because of personality characteristics that you can't help. I mean sure there's self-improvement and therapy but there's only so much you can do when your brain is wired differently
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Words have meaning. Your friends are dorks and geeks, not nerds or spastics.
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I wouldn't have thought it was possible for somebody to create new forms of bigotry on the spot but congratulations you did it. You must be so much fun at parties.
Bedtime stories (Score:2)
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" I wonder if chat GPT would write a report which politely said something along the lines of "David is a capable student who is clearly bored in class, so does the minimum of work needed"?"
Here's ChatGPT's report:
Student Report: David [Last Name]
Grade Level: Professional Class Clown (Year 10)
Subject: General Academic Progress
David is a student of considerable potential who has mastered the art of doing just enough to skate by, a skill that could earn him a PhD in Minimalist Studies someday. His sharp wit an
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I opted out (Score:2)
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You just think you opted out. Every web site you visit, that has a facebook "pixel" on it (which is just about every website) tracks you, even though you don't have an account.
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Do you think people would pay to use facebook? Nope. Somebody's got to pay for it, equipment and software isn't free. So facebook followed the tried-and-true advertising model, just like TV stations our grandparents watched. How is that a crime?
Much ado about nothing (Score:4, Insightful)
If you read the article, you see that it's just clickbait.
IF you use Meta AI, then the bots gets information from your profile into its prompt. This does not imply that it learns from that data, as AI training and AI inference are completely separate processes.
Example (before):
You are a helpful assisstant.
User input: What can I eat today?
Example (with memory):
You are a helpful assisstant.
Memories: The user said to be vegan.
User input: What can I eat today?
Example (now)
You are a helpful assistant. The user's profile contains the info:
- Name: Melli
- Age: 17
- Gender: male
- Meal preferences: vegan
User input: What can I eat today?
You should rather thing about why your Facebook data may include that you're vegan.
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"If you read the article, you see ..."
You must be new here, welcome! :-)
Lets be honest (Score:2)
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Well, personalized advertisements should be better than those that aren't. Unfortunately, this often isn't true. E.g. Amazon keeps trying to sell me more copies of the book I bought last month.
here's your digital baby food, open wide (Score:1)
Enjoy being screwed.
Can't see this happening in the EU (Score:2)
Although IANAL, my impression is that this would lead to fines exceeding the GNP of medium sized countries if they tried this in the EU - data privacy laws there are vicious.
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" if they tried this in the EU - data privacy laws there are vicious."
Even if they saved the data on the Moon? :-)
All watched over by ClippyAI :o (Score:2)
“A series of films about how humans have been colonized by the machines we have built. Although we don't realize it, the way we see everything in the world today is through the eyes of the computers.”
--
All Watched Over By Machines Of Loving Grace [allpoetry.com]
A poem by Richard Brautigan as rewritten by a computer:
I lyk 2 th!nk (4nd th3 s00n3r, th3 b3tt3r!)
of a cyb3rnet!c m34d0w
wh3r3 m4mm4ls and c0mput3rs
l!v3 t0g3th3r in 3pic mUtU4lly pr0gr4mm!ng h4
If you can't beat em... (Score:2)
No opt-out option? FINE (Score:2)