Scoop: Meta won't offer future multimodal AI models in EU
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Meta will withhold its next multimodal AI model — and future ones — from customers in the European Union because of what it says is a lack of clarity from regulators there, Axios has learned.
Why it matters: The move sets up a showdown between Meta and EU regulators and highlights a growing willingness among U.S. tech giants to withhold products from European customers.
State of play: "We will release a multimodal Llama model over the coming months, but not in the EU due to the unpredictable nature of the European regulatory environment," Meta said in a statement to Axios.
- Apple similarly said last month that it won't release its Apple Intelligence features in Europe because of regulatory concerns.
- The Irish Data Protection Commission, Meta's lead privacy regulator in Europe, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Driving the news: Meta plans to incorporate the new multimodal models, which are able to reason across video, audio, images and text, in a wide range of products, including smartphones and its Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses.
- Meta says its decision also means that European companies will not be able to use the multimodal models even though they are being released under an open license.
- It could also prevent companies outside of the EU from offering products and services in Europe that make use of the new multimodal models.
- The company is also planning to release a larger, text-only version of its Llama 3 model soon. That will be made available for customers and companies in the EU, Meta said.
Between the lines: Meta's issue isn't with the still-being-finalized AI Act, but rather with how it can train models using data from European customers while complying with GDPR — the EU's existing data protection law.
- Meta announced in May that it planned to use publicly available posts from Facebook and Instagram users to train future models. Meta said it sent more than 2 billion notifications to users in the EU, offering a means for opting out, with training set to begin in June.
- Meta says it briefed EU regulators months in advance of that public announcement and received only minimal feedback, which it says it addressed.
- In June — after announcing its plans publicly — Meta was ordered to pause the training on EU data. A couple weeks later it received dozens of questions from data privacy regulators from across the region.
The intrigue: The United Kingdom has a nearly identical law to GDPR, but Meta says it isn't seeing the same level of regulatory uncertainty and plans to launch its new model for U.K. users.
- A Meta representative told Axios that European regulators are taking much longer to interpret existing law than their counterparts in other regions.
The big picture: Meta's move highlights a growing conflict between the U.S.-based tech giants and European regulators.
- Tensions are not new, as the EU has long been seen as far tighter in its regulation of both privacy and antitrust matters.
- Tech companies, meanwhile, argues that those regulations hurt both consumers and the competitiveness of European companies.
What they're saying: A Meta representative told Axios that training on European data is key to ensuring its products properly reflect the terminology and culture of the region.
- Meta has said that competitors such as Google and OpenAI are already training on European data.
