Meta has terminated its contract with the Kenyan firm Sama, which employed over 1,100 workers to review private user footage captured by Meta’s AI Glasses for training purposes.

Key Points

• Meta ended its partnership with Sama following investigative reports from Swedish newspapers Svenska Dagbladet and Göteborgs-Posten.
• The contract involved over 1,100 workers in Kenya reviewing sensitive video footage captured by Meta AI Glasses.
• Human contractors were tasked with analyzing user data to refine AI models and correct system errors.
• The operation was reportedly kept quiet to avoid public backlash regarding user privacy and the use of human labor in AI development.
• Meta continues to utilize third-party contractors for AI training, likely shifting operations to other international locations to maintain secrecy.

Why it Matters

This situation highlights the significant gap between legal data practices and public expectations regarding privacy in artificial intelligence. It raises critical questions about user consent and the extent to which personal, intimate data is exposed to human reviewers under the guise of automated AI training.