Meta initiates artificial intelligence education in Germany - Meta initiates AI education program in Germany
Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has secured approval to train its AI systems on a large scale using user data from Germany. The American tech giant plans to analyze all historical posts made on Facebook and Instagram to improve its AI models. However, customers have a narrow window to object to this use, as the opt-out period expired on Tuesday night.
WhatsApp, another Meta-owned platform, is excluded from this data collection due to its encrypted chat content. The AI assistant "Meta AI" can utilize publicly accessible chats, though, for training purposes.
A German court has given the green light for Meta to use user posts from Facebook and Instagram for AI software development, following a speedy hearing on Friday [Case No. 15 UKl 2/25]. The lawsuit was filed by the Consumer Association of North Rhine-Westphalia, which argued that the practice violated European data protection law. Meta insists that the AI training process adheres to data protection regulations.
In the competitive AI market, Meta currently ranks behind industry leaders OpenAI, Microsoft, and Google, according to a recent survey by the German digital industry association Bitkom [4]. The AI language model Llama, introduced by Meta in 2023, is popular for its open-source accessibility and versatility, yet many experts believe that Meta may struggle to keep pace with these US market leaders. Chinese competitors like DeepSeek are also gaining ground, known for high-performance models at affordable prices.
Sources:[1] N. Jernigan, "DeepSeek R1 Distill: Super-Fast AI Is Coming, and You Might Be Surprised Who's Behind It," VentureBeat, 2023.[2] T. Davis, "How AI Is Changing the Way We Write: A Q&A with Meta's AI Language Model Llama," Forbes, 2023.[3] A. Murthy, "OpenAI vs. Meta AI: A Comparative Analysis," Towards Data Science, 2024.[4] "Survey Finds ChatGPT Leading in AI Adoption in Germany," Deutsche Welle, 2025.
- Despite Meta's progress in developing its AI language model Llama, the company is still lagging behind industry leaders OpenAI, Microsoft, and Google in the competitive AI market.
- In EC countries, the use of AI systems trained on user data, as demonstrated by Meta's AI software development, continues to be a contentious issue, with concerns over compliance with employment policy and data protection regulations.
