Meta’s AI models excluded from EU market

Meta’s concerns stem from AI models’ compliance with EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

The European Commission accuses Meta and TikTok of breaching EU online safety rules by failing to address illegal content and denying researchers public data access.

Meta will withhold its future multimodal AI models from customers in the EU due to a lack of clear regulatory guidance. This decision reflects a growing tension between US tech giants and EU regulators.

Meta plans to release its multimodal Llama model in the coming months, integrating video, audio, images, and text. However, these models will not be available in the EU, impacting both European companies and those offering products in the region.

The company’s larger, text-only Llama 3 model will be available in the EU. Meta’s concerns stem from compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), despite briefings with EU regulators and attempts to address their feedback.

The UK, with data protection laws similar to the EU, will receive the new model without regulatory delays. Meta argues that delays in Europe harm consumers and competitiveness, pointing out that other tech companies already use European data to train their models.