PARIS
\nFacebook and Instagram parent company Meta said Thursday it would launch its generative artificial intelligence assistant Meta AI in the European Union from \u201cthis week\u201d, more than a year after the service\u2019s US release.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s taken longer than we would have liked to get our AI technology into the hands of people in Europe as we continue to navigate its complex regulatory system\u2013but we\u2019re glad we\u2019re finally here,\u201d the company said in a statement.
\n\u201cStarting this week, Meta AI will begin rolling out across 41 European countries.\u201d Meta AI was first unveiled for the US in September 2023, then rolled out across all the group\u2019s applications in April 2024.
\nAlthough image generation is available in the US, in the EU the generative AI tool will craft text-only responses to users\u2019 questions. Meta AI can also draw on web search for its answers.
\nThe company said the bot\u2019s inclusion in conversations could help \u201cdeep dive on topics of interest, or get help with a \u2018how-to\u2019 or a problem that needs solving\u201d such as planning a trip.
\nDeveloping \u201clarge language models\u201d (LLMs) like Meta AI requires vast reserves of data, which is heavily regulated in the European Union where it relates to individual users. Meta\u2019s bot available in the EU was not trained on data from EU users.
\nUntil now, the company had held off on introducing its AI in the bloc, saying it was unclear how authorities might interpret overlapping rules on data protection, AI and digital markets. Europe suffers from a \u201cfragmented regulatory structure riddled with inconsistent implementation,\u201d chief executive Mark Zuckerburg said in an August op-ed piece for the Economist newspaper co-written with Spotify chief Daniel Ek.
\nMeta now appears to have overcome those hurdles for the 41 European countries and six languages it operates in.AI is an overriding priority for Meta as for other Silicon Valley giants. The group plans to invest $60-65 billion this year, with much of the cash going into data centres, servers and network infrastructure necessary to develop AI models.
\n\u201cThis is a massive effort, and over the coming years it will drive our core products and business, unlock historic innovation, and extend American technology leadership,\u201d Zuckerberg said in January as he announced Meta\u2019s 2024 financial results. For now, Meta claims around 700 million monthly active users for its AI assistant \u2014 still somewhat shy of the one billion Zuckerberg said was needed to secure \u201ca durable long-term advantage\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
PARIS Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta said Thursday it would launch its generative artificial intelligence assistant Meta AI in the European Union from \u201cthis week\u201d, more than a year after the service\u2019s US release. \u201cIt\u2019s taken longer than we would have liked to get our AI technology into the hands of people in Europe […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":468193,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-468184","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n