Meta says it will not launch its upcoming multimodal artificial intelligence model capable of processing video, audio, images, and text in the European Union, citing regulatory concerns, UNN reports citing The Verge.
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This decision, as noted, will not allow European companies to use the multimodal model, despite the fact that it is implemented under an open license.
"We will release a multimodal Llama model in the coming months, but not in the EU due to the unpredictable nature of the European regulatory environment," Meta spokesperson Kate McLaughlin told The Verge.
Just last week, the EU finalized compliance deadlines for AI companies under its strict new AI law. Tech companies operating in the EU will generally have until August 2026 to comply with rules related to copyright, transparency, and the use of AI.
Meta's decision follows a similar move by Apple, which recently announced that it would likely exclude the EU from the rollout of Apple Intelligence due to concerns over the Digital Markets Act. Meta has also suspended plans to release its AI assistant in the EU and suspended its generative AI tools in Brazil, both due to data protection compliance concerns.
Meta says its multimodal AI models will be used in products such as Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses. According to Axios, Meta's EU stance will also apply to future releases of its multimodal AI models, but excludes a larger text version of the Llama 3 model, which Meta says will be available to EU customers.
This continues to leave a difficult situation for companies outside the EU that had hoped to provide products and services that utilize these models, as they will be prohibited from offering them in one of the world's largest economic markets.
At the time of writing, the EU has not commented on Meta's decision. Apple's decision to potentially limit the introduction of artificial intelligence was criticized by EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager.
ЄС підозрює Meta у порушенні законодавства: компанії загрожує багатомільярдний штраф01.07.24, 15:38