Meta denies using pirated porn to train AI, says downloads were for…

Meta has firmly rejected claims that it utilized pirated adult content to develop its artificial intelligence models. This denial follows a lawsuit initiated by Strike 3 Holdings, an adult film production company, which accused Meta of using its corporate IP addresses to download a significant number of adult films through BitTorrent. The lawsuit alleges that Meta unlawfully downloaded at least 2,396 of Strike 3's acclaimed adult films to train its AI systems, including the Meta Movie Gen and various other models reliant on video data. In response, Meta has requested that a U.S. District Court judge dismiss the lawsuit, asserting that Strike 3 has failed to provide credible evidence to support the assertion that Meta trained any AI models using adult imagery or videos, intentionally or otherwise. Meta characterized the allegations as “nonsensical and unsupported,” criticizing Strike 3 for what it described as a pattern of filing numerous lawsuits, dubbing the company a ‘copyright troll’ known for pursuing extortionate legal actions. The tech giant further clarified that any use of Meta's internet by contractors, visitors, or employees for personal purposes could have occurred without the company’s knowledge. Additionally, Meta pointed out that its AI's terms of service clearly prohibit the generation of adult content, challenging the premise that such material could be relevant for AI training. Meta also addressed claims that it should have better monitored its network for illegal activity, emphasizing that tracking every file downloaded by users would be an immensely complex and intrusive task. This lawsuit is part of a growing trend, with numerous legal challenges emerging against AI companies regarding the use of publicly available data for AI training. Meta has faced similar lawsuits in both the U.S. and France from authors alleging unauthorized use of their copyrighted works in training its large language models. Furthermore, Meta has recently attracted criticism for inappropriate chatbot suggestions appearing on its platforms, which have raised concerns among users.