Meta has decided not to offer the upcoming multimodal AI model and future versions to customers in the European Union due to the lack of clarity from European regulators. report by Axios. The models in question are capable of processing not only text, but also images and audio, and the capabilities of artificial intelligence on Meta platforms, as well as the company’s Ray-Ban smart glasses.
“We will release the multimodal Llama model in the coming months, but not in the EU due to the unpredictable nature of the European regulatory environment,” Meta said. Axios.
Movement of methane a similar decision By Apple, which recently announced that it would not release its Apple Intelligence features in Europe due to regulatory concerns. EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vesteger said he snapped Apple’s move is “a stunning, clear declaration that they know 100 percent that this is just another way to eliminate competition where they already have a stronghold,” the company’s decision said. Engadget has reached out to Vesteger for comment on Meta’s decision.
Keeping Meta’s multimodal AI models out of the EU could have far-reaching implications – meaning companies that use them to build their products and services won’t be able to offer them in Europe.
Meta said Axios still planning to release Llama 3, the company’s upcoming text-only model in the EU. The company’s main concern stems from the challenges of training AI models using data from European customers while complying with the current EU data protection law, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Meta in May announced It said it planned to use public postings from Facebook and Instagram users to train future AI models, but was forced to stop doing so in the EU after pushback from data privacy regulators in the region. At the time, Meta defended its actions, saying that being able to train its models on data from European users was necessary to reflect local culture and terminology.
“If we don’t train our models on public content shared by Europeans on our services and others, such as public posts or comments, the models and the AI features they provide will not accurately understand important regional languages, cultures or trending topics. on social media”, the company said blog post. “We believe that Europeans will be ill-served by AI models that are not aware of Europe’s rich cultural, social and historical contributions.”
Despite its reservations about releasing its multimodal models in the EU, Meta still plans to launch them in the UK, which has similar data protection laws to the EU. The company claimed that European regulators are taking longer to interpret existing laws than their counterparts in other regions.
