Meta AI launches in Europe with limited features due to regulatory concerns

Meta AI is officially launching in Europe after nearly a year of delays due to regulatory scrutiny. The chatbot will now be available on WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger across 41 European countries and 21 overseas territories. However, unlike its US counterpart, the European version is restricted to text-based interactions and does not support image generation, editing, or multimodal capabilities. The delay was primarily caused by privacy concerns raised by Irish regulators, leading Meta to ensure that the AI model is not trained on EU user data. The company has stated that it will continue working with regulators to expand features over time and bring the European version closer to the one available in the US. While some AI capabilities were previously introduced in Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses, they remain limited compared to those outside the EU. Meta aims to gradually achieve feature parity in the future, though it remains cautious about compliance with European data protection regulations.