Automattic announced that it is negotiating with OpenAI and Midjourney for an AI deal. With this deal user data from WordPress users, among others, will enter training data for LLMs from these AI companies. WordPress has stated that it will not share data coming from its paying WordPress VIP users.
Recently, rumours surfaced that WordPress’ parent company, Automattic, was negotiating with OpenAI and Midjourney to share end-user data. The AI developers want to use this specific data to train their AI models. The social media platform Tumblr is also said to be involved, writes 404 Media.
WordPress CEO Gernert responds
In a blog to defuse the potential outcry over turning over this data to the AI companies, WordPress CEO Nick Gernert provides more insights into the deal. More specifically, in doing so, he seeks to reassure users of the WordPress VIP tier. This tier exists primarily for business users.
Gernert indicates that Automattic will not provide data from this group of users to OpenAI and Midjourney. He further states data from these particular customers will never be shared without explicit consent.
What data the AI companies plan to scrape from the platforms is not known. The WordPress CEO indicates only that WordPress VIP customers are safe, but he says nothing about the countless users of the open-source WordPress.org or of the fully hosted WordPress.com variant. So, the data from these groups of end users could be handed over to OpenAI and Midjourney.
Scrapping by AI developers common
In his blog, Gernert also states that the crawling and scrapping of (public or online) data by AI developers is commonplace these days. According to him, users should get advice from trusted organizations if this does not serve them.
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