After Backlash, Zoom Now Says It Won’t Use Any Customer Content to Train AI Systems

variety.com:

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Zoom changed its terms of service to say that it won’t use any customer content — at all — in training generative artificial intelligence models.

The update, which the videoconference company announced Friday, comes after observers raised the alarm about a recent change in Zoom’s TOS that appeared to grant the company royalty-free rights in perpetuity for customer video calls and presentations for the purposes of training AI models.

In its initial response, Zoom said it doesn’t use any customer audio, video or chat content for training AI “without consent.” Now it is saying it will not use such content in any way related to generative AI development.

In a statement Friday appended its its earlier blog post, Zoom said, “Following feedback received regarding Zoom’s recently updated terms of service, particularly related to our new generative artificial intelligence features, Zoom has updated our terms of service and the below blog post to make it clear that Zoom does not use any of your audio, video, chat, screen-sharing, attachments, or other communications like customer content (such as poll results, whiteboard, and reactions) to train Zoom’s or third-party artificial intelligence models.” Zoom said it also updated in-product notices to reflect the change.