To train its new AI model “Apple Intelligence”, Apple uses not only licensed content, but also publicly accessible web content, as the company has now admitted. To build your own Foundation models, you can also access content that your own web crawler “AppleBot” records. This is apparently regardless of the licensing rules that exist on the respective website.
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Opt-out option just announced
Anyone who does not want to provide their texts and images for training by “Apple Intelligence” has the option to opt out. Apple says. How much and what data has already been used to train Apple AI is unclear. To opt out, website operators and content providers must instruct the special “Applebot-Extended” to ignore their content. The “crawling” of websites by AppleBot continues even when you opt out, unless it is denied in the robots.txt file at the same time. Company notes,
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14 June 2024,
10:49
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According to Apple, users’ personal data and “user interactions” should not be included in the training of AI models. Personally identifiable information collected from freely accessible sources, such as credit card information, will also be filtered out. Apple also wants to exclude “pornography” and other low-quality content.
Apple is taking a similar approach to other large AI providers who have used freely accessible web content to train their models and thus set itself on a collision course with publishers, publishers and content creators. According to previous reports, Apple approached several major US publishers about licensing content last year and is already paying for image content for AI training. There was therefore speculation in the industry that Apple might limit itself entirely to licensed content when creating AI models.
In a recent interview, Apple boss Tim Cook advised journalists to license their content for AI training. “It’s really smart for some people,” Cook told the Washington Post. It’s unclear what harm could be in licensing — “unless you get a good deal.”
Use of “free” content for AI training controversial
Other AI companies such as Apple partner OpenAI emphasize AI training with freely accessible content is fundamentally “fair”. And It is practically “impossible” without access to copyrighted material.At the same time, there are more and more deals being struck with publishers and website operators.
There is growing resistance among creatives and content creators, who are often regular Apple customers, over the unsolicited use of their works for AI training. Apple recently realized just how big an annoyance this now is: After a storm of outrage, the company apologized for an iPad ad in which a giant scrap press crushes musical instruments, among other things,
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