Global: Huge data pipelines powering large generative AI systems rely on massive privacy invasions by design

Companies are extracting vast amounts of online data through unlawful web scraping to develop their generative artificial intelligence (AI) products in ways that enable massive invasions of privacy, making these systems inherently unlawful, Amnesty International said in a new briefing today.

Illegal by Design: Uncovering the Human Rights Costs of Generative AI documents serious risks in the large-scale data collection and processing used to build and train these systems, including violations of the right to privacy by design and adverse consequences for the environment and historically marginalized communities.

“Companies around the world are delivering generative AI products under the guise of efficiency and sophistication, but in reality these systems result in massive invasions of privacy through unlawful web scraping: an automated process of extracting data from websites, including personal data such as images and social media activity, to train AI…