Moreover, this alleged activity cannot even reliably be linked to any Meta employee, Meta claims.
Strike 3 “does not identify any of the individuals who allegedly used these Meta IP addresses, does not claim that any of them were hired by Meta or played any role in training the AI at Meta, and does not specify whether (or what) allegedly uploaded content was used to train any specific Meta model,” Meta writes.
Meanwhile, “tens of thousands of employees,” as well as “countless contractors, visitors and third parties, access the Internet at Meta every day,” Meta claims. So while “it is possible that one or more Meta employees” have downloaded Strike 3 content over the past seven years, it is “also possible” that a “guest or a freeloader” or a “contractor or supplier or repairman—or any combination of such persons”—or any combination of such persons was responsible for this activity,” Meta claims.
Other alleged activity included an allegation that a Meta contractor was tasked with downloading adult content at his father's home, but those downloads also “clearly evidenced personal consumption,” Meta alleged. This contractor was working as an “automation engineer,” Mehta noted, with no apparent reason why he would receive data to train the AI in that role. “No credible facts link Meta to these downloads,” Meta claims.
“The fact that the torrenting allegedly ceased after the end of his contract with Meta says nothing about whether the alleged torrenting was carried out with Meta’s knowledge or at her direction,” Meta wrote.
Meta calls AI learning theory 'nonsensical'
Perhaps most puzzling to Meta in the Strike 3 complaint, however, is the allegation of a “hidden network” of hidden IP addresses. This presents “yet another puzzle” that Strike 3 “cannot solve,” Meta argues, writing: “Why does Meta seek to 'hide' certain purported downloads of Plaintiffs' content and third-party content, but use Meta's easily traceable corporate IP addresses for many hundreds more?”
“The obvious answer is that it won't happen,” Mehta argues, criticizing Strike 3's “entire AI learning theory” as “nonsensical and unproven.”
