Meta's New Business Terms Could Let It Train AI on News Sites for Free
TL;DR: Meta's revised business terms appear to let it scrape and train AI on content from publishers that use its platforms, without separate payment.
Key Points
- According to Nieman Lab, the terms let Meta crawl and scrape websites "associated" with businesses that use its platforms.
- The listed uses for this outside content include developing, improving, and researching products, and training AI.
- Online news publishers that run Facebook pages or ads could fall within that scope.
- The terms take effect on October 30.
Why It Matters
Other AI companies, including OpenAI, have paid for licensing deals with news organizations to get training data. Meta appears to be getting similar rights through its platform terms. That would leave publishers with a hard choice: accept the AI training or step back from a major source of distribution. The change is likely to add to existing disputes over copyright and publishers' leverage over their data.