Meta is set to launch its AI chatbot in Europe nearly a year after halting its initial rollout. This week, Meta AI will become available across WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger in 41 European countries and 21 overseas territories, although it will initially offer only text-based chat functionalities.
Originally launched in the US in 2023, Meta AI faced delays in Europe due to privacy concerns raised by Ireland’s data protection authorities, leading to a suspension of training on user-generated content from Facebook and Instagram. Furthermore, the company also paused the rollout of its multimodal Llama AI model in the EU amid regulatory challenges.
Currently, the Meta AI assistant will act as a chatbot for European users, assisting with brainstorming, trip planning, and answering specific queries using web information. Users will also be able to utilize Meta AI to discover curated content on their Instagram feeds. However, functionalities such as image generation or editing and photo-related queries will not be available, as the AI is not trained on EU user data.
Meta spokesperson Ellie Heatrick informed The Verge, “This launch follows almost a year of intensive engagement with various European regulators. For now, we are only offering a text-only model in the region that wasn’t trained on first-party data from users in the EU. We will continue to work collaboratively with regulators to ensure that European users have access to Meta’s AI innovations, which are already available to the rest of the world.”
In November, Meta began integrating some AI features into its Ray-Bans smart glasses in the EU, although these glasses do not currently support multimodal features that allow users to inquire about their surroundings. Nonetheless, Meta remains committed to expanding its AI capabilities in Europe, aiming for parity with the US offerings over time.
