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Meta is launching a scaled-back version of its artificial intelligence (AI) assistant in Europe this week after nearly a year of talks with privacy regulators. The text-only chatbot will roll out across WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger in 41 European countries and 21 overseas territories.
The European version lacks features available to American users, such as image generation and photo analysis. This limited release shows the ongoing clash between EU privacy laws and AI development.
“This launch follows almost a year of intensive engagement with various European regulators,” a Meta spokesperson told The Verge. “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.”
Meta AI first launched in the US in September 2023. The company wanted to release it worldwide but faced resistance from European regulators, especially Ireland’s Data Protection Commission, over worries about using user data for AI training.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg has shown frustration with the delay, saying last December that it was “sad that Europeans were being left behind.”
The European version will mainly work as a chatbot to answer questions, help plan trips, and suggest content on Instagram feeds. It works in six European languages: English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, German, and Italian.
Unlike the American version, the European Meta AI wasn’t built using data from EU users. This choice helps the company avoid strict EU data privacy rules, particularly the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
The limitations also affect Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses, which can’t use the visual recognition features available elsewhere. These glasses cannot use Meta AI to analyze what the wearer sees or answer questions about photos.
Despite these compromises, Meta calls this launch its “largest global expansion of Meta AI to date” and “the first step in our ongoing efforts to bring more intuitive AI to people in Europe.”
The company says Meta AI already has over 700 million monthly active users worldwide, making it one of the most widely used AI assistants.
Meta has promised to keep working with regulators to eventually match the features of the US version. “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,” the spokesperson added.
This limited European launch shows how regional privacy regulations shape the global AI landscape, forcing even tech giants to adapt their products to local rules rather than offering the same services worldwide.
