The popular filesharing service WeTransfer has said user content will not be used to train artificial intelligence after a change in its service terms had triggered a public backlash.
The company, which is regularly used by creative professionals to transfer their work online, had suggested in new terms that uploaded files could be used to “improve machine learning models”.
The clause had previously said the service had a right to “reproduce, modify, distribute and publicly display” content, and the updated version caused confusion among users.
A WeTransfer spokesperson said user content had never been used, even internally, to test or develop AI models and that “no specific kind of AI” was being considered for use by the Dutch company.
The firm said: “There’s no change in how WeTransfer handles your content in practice.”
WeTransfer revised the new terms of service on Tuesday to “make the language easier to understand” and removed any mention of machine learning or AI.
The spokesperson added: “We hope that amending our legal terms to remove mention of machine learning and make the licensing conditions clearer will reassure those among our customers who were wondering what the update meant for them.”
The relevant section in the terms of service now reads: “You hereby grant us a royalty-free license to use your content for the purposes of operating, developing, and improving the service, all in accordance with our privacy & cookie policy.”
Some users of the service, including a voice actor, a film-maker and a journalist, had shared their discontent with the new terms on X and threatened to cancel their subscriptions.
The use of copyright-protected work by AI companies has become a particularly sensitive issue for the creative industries, which argue that using their output without permission endangers their livelihoods by denying them income and also potentially helping to create tools that compete with their own work.
The Writers’ Guild of Great Britain said it was glad to learn that WeTransfer had “provided clarity” and said: “Members’ work should never be used to train AI systems without their permission.”
WeTransfer said: “As a company with deep roots in the creative community, we hold our customers and their work in the highest regard. We will continue to work to make sure WeTransfer is the best product it can be for our customers.”
The company was founded in 2009 to allow users to send large files via email without creating an official account. The service is now used by 80 million monthly users across 190 countries.