data protection
Zoom: Data use for AI training only with user consent
The company assures that the content of the zoom conferences should only be used to improve in-house functions. photo
© Andre M. Chang/ZUMA Wire/dpa
Using user data to train artificial intelligence is a sensitive topic. A controversy broke out around the video conferencing service Zoom after users noticed references to it in the rules of use.
The video conferencing service Zoom wants to use some user data to train software with artificial intelligence – but assures that this will only happen with consent. The US company felt compelled to clarify after there was a fuss over some of the terms of use wording.
“We do not use audio, video or chat content to train our AI models without customer consent,” wrote product manager Smita Hashim in a blog post. A similar wording was subsequently included in the terms of use. At the same time, the discussion shows how seldom these texts are read: According to Zoom, the denounced changes were already made in March.
Hashim referred to two new features that Zoom has so far offered free of charge as a test: automatically created summaries of conversations and wording suggestions for chats. Content from the Zoom conferences should only be used to improve these in-house functions, she emphasized. When activating the two functions, administrators on the customer side would be given the choice of whether or not to consent to the sharing of the data. The data still belonged to the customers.
Beware of use of confidential information
The controversy reflects a general debate surrounding artificial intelligence software. Programs like the chatbot ChatGPT have to be fed with large amounts of information so that they can formulate sentences. Many developers used publicly available texts and data for this purpose.
However, there is always concern that, for example, confidential information from companies could be sucked into the software. Some companies have therefore prohibited their employees from using online AI chatbots. For use in companies, the software is programmed in such a way that the data does not get out. Zoom also assured on Monday that the data would not be used to train third-party AI models, even if sharing was approved.