Meta will not launch multimodal Llama AI model in EU

The Facebook parent joins a growing list of Big Tech companies delaying or avoiding product launches in the EU citing strict and unfavourable regulations.

Meta said it will not release its planned multimodal Llama AI model in the EU because of the bloc’s “unpredictable” regulatory environment.

Multimodal AI models are those that can deal with multiple formats, such as text, images, audio and video. Meta unveiled its latest large language models (LLM) called Llama 3 in April and said at the time that a multimodal version was to be made available in the coming months.

Now, the company in the race to build the most advanced generative AI models has said that its latest technology will not see the light of day in the EU.

“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,” Meta said in a statement.

Axios reports that Meta is concerned about how it can train its models using EU data while complying with the GDPR. Last month, the company rolled back on plans to train its large language models (LLMs) using public content shared by adults on Facebook and Instagram, following intensive discussion with the Irish Data Protection Commission.

Privacy advocacy group Noyb expressed serious concerns about the plan, alleging that Meta’s intention to use AI training material sourced from public and licenced data that could include personal information would breach the GDPR.

Llama 3

When Meta revealed Llama 3, it claimed the models show “state-of-the-art” performance on various industry benchmarks and come with new capabilities such as “improved reasoning”.

Meta gave a teaser about the power of Llama 3 earlier this year, when the company said it was using two “data centre scale” clusters that both contain more than 24,000 Nvidia H100 GPUs to develop Llama 3.

Meta claimed the models are a “major leap” from Llama 2 and that the company’s goal was to create open models that are “on par with the best proprietary models available today”.

Apple Intelligence

Meta is not the only Big Tech company deciding to skip a major product launch in the EU market citing tough regulations. Apple recently unveiled its own AI advancements under the banner of Apple Intelligence due to launch in the US later this year.

The iPhone maker said that Apple Intelligence is not expected to launch in the EU until 2025 – citing similar reasons as Meta.

While Meta’s objections with the EU pertain to GDPR, Apple has a problem with requirements of the Digital Markets Act (DMA), which aims to increase competition in the bloc and prevent anti-competitive behaviours.

The DMA requires companies to make their products interoperable with those made by competitors, which Apple argues puts its users’ privacy and security at risk.

EU leaders are not convinced. “I find that very interesting that they say, ‘we will now deploy AI where we’re not obliged to enable competition’,” EU competition chief Magrethe Vestager said recently upon being asked about her thoughts on Apple’s postponement decision.

“I think that is the most stunning, open declaration that they know 100pc that this is another way of disabling competition where they have a stronghold already.”

Meta launched X competitor Threads last July, making it available in most major markets, including the UK, US and India. However, the company withheld launching the app in the EU because of its strict regulations. It was eventually launched in the EU in December.

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