Meta has announced that it will not launch its upcoming multimodal AI model in the European Union (EU), citing regulatory concerns as the primary reason. This decision will prevent European companies from leveraging the multimodal model, despite its release under an open license.
“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,” said Meta spokesperson Kate McLaughlin.
EU’s new AI Act
This announcement comes shortly after the EU finalized compliance deadlines for AI companies under its strict new AI Act. Tech companies operating in the EU must comply with rules regarding copyright, transparency, and AI uses such as predictive policing by August 2026.
Meta and Apple’s regulatory challenges
Meta’s decision is reminiscent of a recent move by Apple, which indicated it would likely exclude the EU from its Apple Intelligence rollout due to concerns over the Digital Markets Act. Meta has also halted plans to release its AI assistant in the EU and paused its generative AI tools in Brazil due to data protection compliance issues.
A text-only version of Meta’s Llama 3 model will still be launched in the EU. However, the multimodal AI models will be integrated into products like the Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses. According to Axios, future multimodal AI model releases will also bypass the EU market, except for the larger text-only version of the Llama 3 model, which will be available to EU customers.
This situation poses challenges for companies outside the EU that intended to offer products and services utilizing these models, as they will be unable to provide them in one of the world’s largest economic markets. As of now, the EU has not commented on Meta’s decision. However, Apple’s potential AI deployment restrictions have been criticized by the EU’s competition commissioner, Margrethe Vestager.
