Meta Delays Meta AI Launch in Europe Due to Regulatory Hurdles (NASDAQ:META)

Metaplatforms (NASDAQ:META) will delay the launch of its artificial intelligence assistant Meta AI in Europe as it considers a request from Ireland’s privacy regulator to use content from Facebook and Instagram as training data.

Last week support group NOYB had filed complaints from 11 European countries against the social media giant, alleging that the company plans to use personal data to train its artificial intelligence models without obtaining user consent.

NOYB, or None Of Your Business, has asked the authorities to initiate an urgent procedure to stop changes to Meta’s privacy policy (META) before it enters into force on June 26.

The Mark Zuckerberg-led company said the Irish Data Protection Commission, on behalf of European data protection authorities, has asked Meta (META) to delay training its large language models using public content on Facebook and Instagram.

“This is a step backwards for European innovation, competition in AI development and further delays in making the benefits of AI available to European citizens,” Meta (META) said in a blog post.

“Put simply, without taking local information into account, we would only be able to offer people a second-rate experience,” the social media giant stressed.

The company added that it was “disappointed” by the Irish privacy regulator’s request, “particularly since we have taken on board feedback from regulators and European data protection authorities have been informed of this since March.”

Meta (META) said it would also use the delay to deal with specific requests from the Information Commissioner’s Office, the UK’s regulator, before training begins.