Meta AI can imagine everything… except operating in the EU
Meta AI travels internationally, starting with Brazil, Bolivia, Guatemala, Paraguay, the Philippines and the United Kingdom this week. In the coming weeks, the tech giant’s AI assistant will eventually debut in 21 countries across Africa, Southeast Asia and the Middle East. Conspicuous in its absence is any continental European country, while Meta argues with the European Union (EU) over legal requirements.
Meta has not set a date for Meta AI’s release in the countries outside the original list. However, people in Algeria, Egypt, Indonesia, Iraq, Jordan, Libya, Malaysia, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Thailand, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates, Vietnam and Yemen will also be able to ask their questions to Meta AI. . They can also create images and even insert their faces into the results using the “Introduce Me” feature to create a digital avatar from uploaded photos that can then be incorporated into an image created from a text prompt. Those images can then be edited by follow-up prompts.
The broader geographic access to Meta AI includes linguistic expansion. That means the new international users won’t be limited to communicating with the AI assistant in English. The first new language on the list is Tagalog, which is spoken by many in the Philippines. Arabic, Indonesian, Thai and Vietnamese are next on Meta AI’s roadmap, fitting for the countries getting access to the AI assistant, which are also places where many people regularly use Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and other Meta platforms. These same people will likely form a core of early adopters of Meta AI.
“Following this gradual rollout, Meta AI will be available in 43 countries and a dozen languages. That means more people than ever can use Meta AI to delve deeper into topics that pique their interest, get helpful how-tos, and find inspiration for art projects, home decor, OOTDs, and more,” Meta boasted in a blog post. “In fact, Meta AI is already on track to become the most used AI assistant in the world by the end of the year, with nearly 500 million monthly active users.”
Meta’s products are also popular in the EU, but the lack of EU expansion plans is not surprising. Meta has already said it will not introduce new AI tools, especially image and video related ones, as it is wary of violating new regulations and compliance requirements that the company believes are unfair.
The biggest issue raised by European lawmakers concerns ethical data use and privacy. The recently adopted rules are intended to delay the launch of AI technology that does not address these potential problems. The current form of Meta AI may break some of the new rules. In response, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has suggested that these regulations limit innovation and harm citizens. For now, Meta has chosen to skip the EU in favor of other markets for its AI products.
Meta AI is also expanding in another direction this week, debuting in more regions on the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, now available in the UK and Australia. While Australians will have the full range of features, Britain will only get voice support for now. The wearable technology integration with Meta AI is part of the company’s commitment to integrate its AI into everything it produces. Meta didn’t say why Britain won’t immediately get the augmented reality overlay or image recognition features. Presumably there are technical issues, regulatory hurdles, or both that need to be overcome.