Meta’s AI chatbot is now set to roll out across Europe, marking the social media company’s long-awaited expansion of its AI assistant to the region. Starting this week, WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger will introduce Meta AI in 41 European countries and 21 overseas territories. However, the European version of the chatbot will be relatively restricted compared to its US counterpart, as it will only support text-based interactions and will not include image generation or editing features. This means that it will help users with general queries, brainstorming ideas, and retrieving information from the web, as well as search for specific content on Instagram, enabling them to surface relevant posts and reels based on their interests.
The move follows a year-long delay due to privacy concerns raised by European regulators, particularly over how Meta trains its AI models using user-generated content. Despite these setbacks, the company has now secured the necessary regulatory approvals to proceed with a limited rollout of its AI assistant in the region.
“At Meta, we believe that being at the forefront of innovation means being able to move quickly to adopt new and emerging technologies. Since Meta AI launched in the US in 2023, we’ve seen corners of the world embrace free access to an intelligent and conversational assistant, which has seen rapidly enhanced product experiences. It’s taken longer than we would have liked to get our AI technology into the hands of people in Europe as we continue to navigate its complex regulatory system – but we’re glad we’re finally here. Over the coming weeks, we’ll take the first step in making Meta AI’s chat function available in six European languages, with a view to find parity with the US and expand our offering over time,” the company noted in an official post.
Meta AI is being integrated into WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram, and Facebook, with a new blue circle icon indicating its presence. Users can interact with the AI assistant by typing “@MetaAI” followed by their query. This feature aims to provide AI-powered assistance within group chats and personal messages, allowing users to search the web, get recommendations, or find relevant social media content without leaving the app. Meta AI will initially support six European languages, with the company planning to expand language support over time.
To delve deeper into the matter, Meta’s original plans to introduce its AI assistant in Europe had halted after regulators raised concerns over how Meta was using Facebook and Instagram posts to train its AI models, leading the company to postpone the rollout until regulatory approval was obtained. In response to these concerns, Meta announced that it would also hold back the release of its multimodal Llama AI models in the European Union due to uncertainty over compliance with data protection laws. Since then, the company has been negotiating with regulators for months, which led to the current development. “For now, we are only offering a text-only model in the region which wasn’t trained on first-party data from users in the EU. We will continue to work collaboratively with regulators so that people in Europe have access to and are properly served by Meta’s AI innovations that are already available to the rest of the world,” Heatrick explained.
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