Google has recently updated its privacy policy, making it clear that the company has the right to collect and analyze user-shared content on the internet to train its AI systems. The policy previously mentioned data usage for training “language” models, specifically referencing Google Translate. However, the updated version now includes “AI models,” specifying Bard and Cloud AI in addition to Translate.
Generative AI systems like ChatGPT and Bard have faced criticism due to their data scraping practices. While the information may be publicly available, concerns arise regarding plagiarism, privacy, and the potential for the AI to misinterpret or provide outdated answers. Even Google has cautioned its employees about using chatbots like Bard, as they can make unintended code suggestions.
Moreover, the legality of such data scraping is in question. OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, is facing lawsuits accusing them of illegally collecting personal information and using it to develop their products. Copyright infringement and privacy violations are also at the center of a lawsuit against OpenAI, claiming they used copyrighted books without permission and failed to provide credit or compensation to the copyright holders.
Elon Musk appears to have strong concerns about data scraping. Recently, Twitter implemented a temporary limit on the number of tweets accounts could read per day, citing the need to address “extreme levels” of data scraping and “system manipulation” on the platform. However, there are differing opinions on whether this was the actual reason for the limitation.
Similarly, Reddit has faced a series of challenges after discontinuing free access to its APIs in order to prevent data harvesting. As a result, over 8,000 subreddits protested by going dark, and some transitioned to NSFW (Not Safe for Work) content.
