[…]
In a statement to The Verge, Meta spokesperson Kate McLaughlin said that the company’s next-gen Llama AI model is skipping Europe, placing the blame squarely on regulations. “We will release a multimodal Llama model over the coming months,” Mclaughlin said, “but not in the EU due to the unpredictable nature of the European regulatory environment.”
A multimodal model is one that can incorporate data between multiple mediums, like video and text, and use them together while calculating. It makes AI more powerful, but also gives it more access to your device.
The move actually follows a similar decision from Apple, which said in June that it would be holding back Apple Intelligence in the EU due to the Digital Markets Act, or DMA, which puts heavy scrutiny on certain big tech “gatekeepers,” Apple and Meta both among them.
Meta’s concerns here could be less related to the DMA and more to the new AI Act, which recently finalized compliance deadlines and will force companies to make allowances for copyright and transparency starting August 2, 2026. Certain AI use cases, like those that try to read the emotions of schoolchildren, will also be banned. As the company tries to get a hold of AI on its social media platforms, increasing pressure is the last thing it needs.
How this will affect AI-forward Meta products like Ray-Ban smart glasses remains to be seen. Meta told The Verge that future multimodal AI releases will continue to be excluded from Europe, but that text-only model updates will still come to the region.
While the EU has yet to respond to Meta’s decision, EU competition regulator Margrethe Vestager previously called Apple’s plan to keep Apple Intelligence out of the EU a “stunning open declaration” of anticompetitive behavior.
Source: Meta Is Keeping Its Next Big AI Update Out of the EU | Lifehacker
Why is this good? Because the regulatory environment is predictable and run by rules that enforce openness, security, privacy and fair competition. The fact that Apple and Meta don’t want to run this in the EU shows that they are either incapable or unwilling to comply with points that are good for the people. You should not want to do business with shady dealers like that.
Robin Edgar
Organisational Structures | Technology and Science | Military, IT and Lifestyle consultancy | Social, Broadcast & Cross Media | Flying aircraft