After a brief delay, Meta says that it’s begun to roll out certain AI features to users of its Ray-Ban Meta AR glasses in France, Italy, and Spain.
Starting today, people in those countries can invoke Meta’s AI assistant, Meta AI, using their voice to get answers to general questions (e.g. “What are some good gift ideas for my kids aged 6 and 8?”). Meta AI now supports French, Italian, and Spanish in addition to English as part of the update, Meta says.
“Since we launched in September 2023, we have been diligently working to ensure that Ray-Ban Meta glasses comply with Europe’s complex regulatory system,” the company wrote in a blog post. “We are excited to begin bringing Meta AI and its innovative features to parts of the EU and look forward to expanding to more European countries soon.”
The upgrade won’t include multimodal features available on Ray-Ban Meta glasses in the U.S., Canada, and Australia — namely the ability to get answers to questions about what’s in view of the glasses’ camera (e.g. “Tell me more about this landmark”). Meta says it’s working to bring multimodality to more countries “in the future.”
Meta has previously expressed concerns about its ability to comply with the AI Act, the EU law that establishes a legal and regulatory framework for AI — calling the law’s implementation “too unpredictable.” Also at issue for the company are provisions in the GDPR, the EU’s privacy law, pertaining to AI training. Meta trains AI models, including the models that power features of its Ray-Ban Meta glasses, on the public data of Instagram and Facebook users who haven’t opted out — data that in Europe is subject to GDPR guarantees.
EU regulators earlier this year requested that Meta halt training on European user data while they assessed the company’s GDPR compliance. Meta relented, while at the same time endorsing an open letter calling for “a modern interpretation” of GDPR that doesn’t “reject progress.”
In early fall, Meta said that it would resume training on U.K. user data after “[incorporating] regulatory feedback” into a revised opt-out process. And shortly afterward, the company brought select AI capabilities to Ray-Ban Meta glasses in the U.K. (as well as six other countries). But Meta has yet to share an update on its model training practices throughout the rest of the bloc.
