Meta AI Expands to Europe with Limited Features

Meta AI is finally making its way to Europe, albeit with some restrictions. Almost a year after halting its rollout in the region, Meta is now introducing its AI chatbot across WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger in 41 European countries and 21 overseas territories. However, for now, the AI assistant will be limited to text-based interactions.

The original launch of Meta AI took place in the US in 2023. While the company initially planned to bring its chatbot to Europe, it had to postpone the rollout due to regulatory concerns. Ireland’s privacy watchdog had requested Meta to delay using content from Facebook and Instagram for training its AI models. This also led to a pause in the release of its multimodal Llama AI model in the European Union.

For European users, Meta AI will function as a chatbot, assisting with brainstorming, travel planning, and answering queries using web-based information. Additionally, it will help surface certain types of content on Instagram feeds. However, the assistant will not be able to generate or edit images or answer questions related to photos. Meta has confirmed that the model is not trained on EU user data.

“This launch follows almost a year of intensive engagement with various European regulators and for now, we are only offering a text-only model in the region which wasn’t trained on first-party data from users in the EU,” Meta spokesperson Ellie Heatrick told The Verge. “We will continue to work collaboratively with regulators so that people in Europe have access to and are properly served by Meta’s AI innovations that are already available to the rest of the world.”

In November, Meta introduced some AI features to its Ray-Bans smart glasses in Europe, but these do not yet support multimodal capabilities. Despite these current limitations, Meta remains committed to expanding AI features in Europe, stating that it aims to “find parity with the US and expand our offering over time.”