Meta has decided to withhold its upcoming multimodal AI model and future versions from customers in the European Union due to a lack of clarity from European regulators. This decision comes after Apple also announced that it would not release its Apple Intelligence features in Europe for similar regulatory concerns.
The multimodal AI models in question are designed to process text, images, and audio, and are intended to power AI capabilities in Meta platforms as well as the company’s Ray-Ban smart glasses. Meta explained its decision by stating that the unpredictable nature of the European regulatory environment is a major factor in their choice to withhold these models from the EU.
This move could have significant implications, as companies that rely on these AI models to build their products and services would be unable to offer them in Europe. Meta cited challenges in training AI models using data from European customers while complying with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the EU’s data protection law.
While Meta still plans to release its upcoming text-only model, Llama 3, in the EU, the company’s primary concern lies in the difficulties of training AI models on data from European users while adhering to GDPR regulations. In the past, Meta had intended to use publicly available posts from Facebook and Instagram users to train its AI models but had to halt this practice in the EU due to pushback from data privacy regulators.
Despite the decision to withhold multimodal AI models from the EU, Meta intends to launch them in the UK, which has similar data protection laws to the EU. The company believes that European regulators are taking longer to interpret existing laws compared to regulators in other regions.
Overall, Meta’s decision to withhold these AI models from the EU underscores the challenges that tech companies face in navigating complex regulatory environments while striving to develop innovative AI technologies. As the debate over data privacy and AI regulation continues, it remains to be seen how companies like Meta will adapt their strategies to comply with evolving legal frameworks in different regions around the world.
