Meta's AI Expansion Gains Momentum but Skips EU Amid Regulatory Tensions

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently announced the launch of Meta AI, the company's AI chatbot, in six countries—Brazil, the UK, the Philippines, Bolivia, Guatemala, and Paraguay. This expansion marks the beginning of a wider rollout to around 40 countries, including regions in the Middle East and Southeast Asia, with support for over ten languages. However, specific launch dates for these additional regions have not been disclosed.

According to Meta, the AI assistant can be accessed on various platforms including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger, as well as on the Meta.ai website. Additionally, Meta AI is being introduced on Ray-Ban's smart glasses in the UK and Australia, although only voice functionalities are currently available in the UK, with no timeline provided for full features.

Notably absent from this expansion is the European Union. Earlier this year, Meta decided not to introduce multimodal AI services in the EU, citing regulatory concerns. Zuckerberg has openly criticized European regulators over their approach to AI proliferation.

In recent developments, Meta unveiled Movie Gen, hailed as the company's most advanced media foundation model. This breakthrough in generative AI research allows users to create customized videos and sounds with simple text inputs, outperforming similar models in human evaluations.

Furthermore, Meta has enhanced its AI capabilities by integrating new features such as celebrity voice synching and translation support. The Imagine feature, powered by generative AI, has been extended to Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger, enabling users to generate and edit photos via natural language prompts.