Meta has suspended its AI assistant after Brazil's National Data Protection Agency (ANPD) banned the company from using Brazilians' personal data to train AI models, a move that deals a blow to Facebook's efforts to build AI products in the Brazilian market, which has a population of more than 200 million.
As cited in official documents, Brazilian authorities said the precautionary measure was due to “an imminent risk of serious harm and irreparable or irreparable damage to the fundamental rights of the guardians.”
In addition, the ANPD stipulated that non-compliance would be subject to a fine of 50,000 reais per day.
A Meta spokesperson confirmed the decision in a statement to TechCrunch, saying, “We have decided to suspend previously operational genAI functionality in Brazil while we consult with the Brazilian police and answer questions about genAI.”
Meta has already been using user-generated content to train its AI in the US and other markets for several years, but in May it had to suspend plans to train its AI models in Europe and the UK after the Irish Data Protection Commission objected to those plans.