Meta warns of possible restrictions due to EU regulations in the field of artificial intelligence

The technology giant Meta warned the EU about potential negative impacts of its regulation on Artificial Intelligence (AI). In a statement, Rob Sherman, Deputy Chief Privacy Officer and Vice President for Policy at Meta, emphasized that the EU's current approach risks cutting the continent off from state-of-the-art services. This coincides with the EU's efforts to rein in the power of Big Tech. Sherman confirmed that Meta had received a request from the EU's data protection officer to voluntarily pause the training of future AI models on data from the region. This is intended to give local regulators time to address the matter of generative AI. Although Meta complies with the request, Sherman pointed out that such measures could lead to a technological gap in Europe compared to the rest of the world. The availability of future and more advanced AI releases, in particular, could be affected in Europe. These remarks come at a time when both large technology companies and startups are in a race to commercialize AI products while being simultaneously restricted by the EU's extensive digital regulations, including the new Artificial Intelligence Act, which aims to regulate the development of the most powerful models and services. Sherman further explained that the recent EU request arose from uncertainties regarding whether the training of AI models on consumer data is permissible under the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). These rules require companies collecting or using personal data to obtain consent from the individuals concerned and disclose the purpose of data collection. Meta has already suspended the rollout of its Meta AI Assistant and a new version of the Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses with an integrated assistant due to regulatory and data protection concerns in the EU and the UK. The assistant is now available in 22 countries, including the USA, Australia, and Argentina, and in new languages such as French, Spanish, and Hindi. Apple has also announced it will not introduce several features under its Apple Intelligence brand due to concerns related to the EU's Digital Markets Act. The EU itself does not comment on individual company decisions but emphasizes that the European internal market, with 450 million potential users, remains an attractive market as long as corporate activities comply with the law. Despite the halt in training future models, Meta released an updated version of its AI models -- Llama 3.1 -- on Tuesday, which will be available both in Europe and worldwide. This includes a new model with 405 billion parameters, which Meta describes as the "largest and most powerful open model in the industry to date." A higher parameter count is often seen as an indicator of superior performance.