Meta Claims Downloaded Porn at Center of AI Lawsuit Was for ‘Personal Use’
Furthermore, that alleged activity cannot even be reliably linked to a Meta employee, Meta claims.
Strike 3 “does not identify any of the individuals who allegedly used these Meta IP addresses, claim that one was employed by Meta or had a role in AI training at Meta, or specify whether (and what) downloaded content was allegedly used to train a particular Meta model,” Meta wrote.
Meanwhile, “tens of thousands of employees” as well as “countless contractors, visitors and third parties access the Internet at Meta every day,” Meta stated. So while it's “possible that one or more Meta employees” downloaded Strike 3's content in the past seven years, “it's just as possible” that a “guest, or freeloader,” or “contractor, or vendor, or repair person—or any combination of such persons—was responsible for that activity,” Meta claims.
Other alleged activity included an allegation that a Meta contractor was directed to download adult content at his father's house, but those downloads, too, “are clearly indicative of personal consumption,” Meta said. That contractor worked as an “automation engineer,” Meta noted, with no clear basis provided for why he would be expected to source AI training data in that role. “No facts plausible” connect “Meta to those downloads,” Meta claims.
“The fact that the torrenting allegedly stopped when his contract with Meta ended says nothing about whether the alleged torrenting was carried out with Meta's knowledge or at his direction,” Meta wrote.
Meta slams AI Training Theory as “nonsensical”
Perhaps most perplexing to Meta in Strike 3's complaint, however, is the claim about the “stealth network” of hidden IPs. This presents “yet another conundrum” that Strike 3 “fails,” Meta claims, writing, “why would Meta attempt to 'hide' certain alleged Plaintiffs' downloads and third-party content, but use easily traceable Meta corporate IP addresses for many hundreds of others?”
“The obvious answer is that it wouldn't,” Meta claims, slamming Strike 3's “entire AI training theory” as “nonsense and unsupported.”
