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Meta brings the assistant AI to the Ray-Ban Meta in Europe
The company starts the release in France, Italy and Spain, but some features remain excluded in the old continent
Isabella V18 November 2024

 

Meta began to distribute in Europe some functionality of AI through its Ray-Ban Meta glasses, starting from France, Italy and Spain. The Meta Vocal Assistant to the General Questions in different languages, but some advanced features are still absent. The company is facing regulatory challenges, including those related to the GDPR and ACT.

Key points:

  • Meta launched the Vocal Assistant Meta Ai in France, Italy and Spain.
  • The assistant supports answers to general questions in French, Italian, Spanish and English.
  • Some advanced glasses features, such as multimodal mode, are not yet available in Europe.
  • Meta is facing regulatory problems related to GDPR and ACT in Europe.

Meta has started the release of functionality based on AI on its Ray-Ban Meta glasses in Europe, with an initial debut in France, Italy and Spain. Users of these countries, starting today, can interact with the Meta Ai vocal assistant, which answers general questions such as "What are some good gift ideas for my 6 and 8 -year -old children?". This version of the assistant to support languages ​​such as French, Italian, Spanish and English, an important step towards the integration of technology in the daily lives of European users. Despite this, some of the most advanced updates, such as the multimodal function that allows glasses to answer questions about what is framed by their camera (for example, asking for information on a point of reference), are not yet available in Europe. Meta said that this functionality will be introduced in the future in other countries of the European Union, but has not provided precise timing.

The company has worked intensely to ensure that the ray-banses responded to European regulations, in particular to those related to data protection and regulation of the use of AI. In this regard, Meta highlighted the complexity of conforming to the ACT, the European legislation that establishes the rules for the use of AI, underlining how the interpretation of the law is still too uncertain and variable. Compliance with the provisions of the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) is also a hot topic by goal, especially as regards the use of user data to train AI models. In particular, the company uses the public data of Facebook and Instagram users who have not chosen to exclude them from the collection, data that in Europe are protected from European privacy regulations.

This situation led to a series of comparisons with European regulators. At the beginning of the year, the EU authorities asked Meta to suspend the formation of its AI models on European users’ data, while the Company’s compliance with privacy laws was assessed. Meta subsequently accepted the suspension, while approving an open letter asking for a "modern" interpretation of the GDPR, able to reconcile the protection of privacy with technological innovations.

During the autumn, Meta resumed training on user data in the United Kingdom, after introducing changes to the opt-out process, and has extended some features to its ray-banks glasses also in six other countries, between which the United Kingdom. Despite these progress, the company has not yet shared a complete update on the situation relating to the training of models in the rest of the European Union. This scenario demonstrates how technological companies are forced to navigate in a complex regulatory context and constantly evolving, in particular as regards the use of emerging technologies such as AI, where the speed of innovation can enter into contrast with the need to guarantee user privacy and safety.

Meta stressed the importance of a regulatory approach that can balance technological progress with the legitimate concerns related to privacy and safety, but the way to harmonize the regulations still seems long and full of challenges.