How to Opt Out of A.I. Online

Last week, like the Jews of Exodus painting blood on their lintels, hundreds of thousands of Instagram users posted a block of text to their accounts hoping to avoid the plague of artificial intelligence online. "Goodbye Meta AI," the message began, referring to Facebook's parent company, and continued, "I do not give Meta or anyone else permission to use any of my personal data, profile information or photos." Friends of mine posted it; artists I follow posted it; Tom Brady posted it. In their eagerness to combat the encroachment of A.I., all of them seemed to overlook the fact that merely sharing a meme would do nothing to change their legal rights vis-à-vis Meta or any other tech platform. It is, in fact, possible to prevent Meta from training its A.I. models on your personal data.