Meta’s AI tool still not cleared for use by EU Commission 

The European Commission is awaiting a risk assessment by Meta to check whether the tech giant’s new AI chat function meets obligations under the EU online platform rules, a spokesperson for the Commission told Euronews.

The spokesperson said that “certain aspects” of MetaAI fall within the scope of the Digital Services Act (DSA), which sets out standards for safety and transparency. 

Under the DSA, a company needs to submit risk assessments to the Commission annually but also in advance of deploying new functions.

“Once we have received the risk assessment, we will carefully analyse all relevant documents to ensure compliance with the DSA and that the feature does not present any undue risks within the European Union,” the spokesperson said.

Meta announced last week that it will roll out MetaAI across the EU. It was rolled out in the US in September 2023, followed by India in June 2024, and in the UK in October. 

Its plan to continue expansion in Europe was halted last summer due to “regulatory unpredictability”: the Irish Data Protection Commission told the company to postpone its plan because it planned to use data of adult users of Facebook and Instagram to train its large language models (LLMs). 

“It’s taken longer than we would have liked to get our AI technology into the hands of people in Europe as we continue to navigate its complex regulatory system – but we’re glad we’re finally here,” Meta said in a blog post last week. 

A spokesperson for the company said in a statement to Euronews that Meta has been “fully transparent with the European Commission on the launch of Meta AI”.

“We’re confident in our compliance and remain in ongoing dialogue with the Commission,” the statement added.

The company – including its CEO Mark Zuckerberg and global policy chief Joel Kaplan – have been critical of Europe’s regulatory action against US tech companies, even more so after the new US administration of Republican President Donald Trump took office in January.