The Meta AI chatbot is set to launch in various European nations starting this week, becoming accessible through Instagram, WhatsApp, Facebook, and Messenger. Nevertheless, the standout feature of Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses will not be included.
This generative AI feature initially debuted in the United States back in 2023, but concerns regarding privacy arose after it was revealed that the company had been training the AI on posts from Facebook and Instagram dating back to 2007.
European privacy laws mandated that Meta provide EU and UK citizens with the option to opt-out; however, privacy regulators expressed dissatisfaction, advocating for an opt-in model instead. This led the company to pause its European rollout while continuing its expansion in other regions.
Now, the rollout is back on track, following what Meta describes as “intensive engagement” with regulators. However, according to The Verge, only text chat functionality will be available at this time.
Commencing this week, Meta AI will begin its rollout across WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger in 41 European countries and 21 overseas territories […]
For the time being, Meta states that its AI assistant will only operate as a chatbot for European users, assisting in brainstorming ideas, trip planning, or answering specific questions using information from the internet. European users will also have the ability to use Meta AI to discover certain types of content on their Instagram feeds. However, the tool will not support tasks such as generating or editing images or answering questions about photos. Additionally, the model is not trained on EU user data.
This has a significant impact on the Ray-Ban Meta glasses, as they cannot deliver their primary feature of allowing users to ask the AI about what they are observing and receive answers.
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