Meta Platforms on Wednesday released its AI chatbot Meta AI in several markets including the UK, amid a backlash over user data privacy. Meta launched the AI assistant together with its AI-boosted sunglasses that were modeled by chief executive Mark Zuckerberg.
The social media giant revealed it will debut the AI assistant in 21 new markets as it seeks to compete with other tech rivals like OpenAI, famed for its ChatGPT. Meta AI is capable of generating text and images.
Users can access Meta AI on social media and Ray-Ban Meta glasses
Already available in the US and Australia as well as a select Latin American countries, the AI assistant will now be accessible in the UK, Brazil, Bolivia, Guatemala, and Paraguay among others.
This means that both Facebook and Instagram users in the UK will be able to access the AI assistant by simply tapping its icon on their app.
They can also access it through Ray-Ban Meta frames valued at £299 a pair from UK retailers and access its voice assistant. According to Thurrott, the AI chatbot is also now available on Ray-Ban Meta glasses in Australia where it is adding support to the Austronesian language Tagalog.
During a recent company event, Zuckerberg spotted AI-powered glasses and announced that the AI assistant would be able to respond to voice commands as well as use celebrity voices such as those belonging to John Cena, Judi Dench, and Keegan-Michael Key. The celebrity voice will not be available in the UK.
According to Meta, this latest rollout which also includes the Philippines is expected to assist users get answers to their questions, brainstorming content, and “bringing their ideas to life in places where they can easily share the results with their local network and our broader community.”
The company expects to launch in another 15 countries in the coming few weeks, including in the Middle East for the first time.
“Following this gradual rollout, Meta AI will be available in 43 countries and a dozen languages. That means more people than ever will be able to use Meta AI to dive deep on topics that spark their interest, get helpful how-tos and find inspiration for art projects, home decor, OOTDs, and more.”
Meta.
According to the company, the list of countries it is soon launching the AI assistant service includes Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Indonesia, Lybia, Morocco, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Thailand, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Vietnam, and Yemen.
The company also expects its AI assistant will soon add support for Arabic, Indonesian, Thai, and Vietnamese languages.
Regulatory challenges caused Meta AI launch delays
Meta delayed the launch of its Meta AI services in the UK and other domains due to regulatory challenges. The service remains inaccessible to users in the EU region on the back of its “unpredictable” regulatory landscape.
Powered by its Llama 3.2 model, Meta’s AI assistant services have come under the spotlight with social media users seeking to block the company from using their posts to train its AI tools.
In one of the viral posts to de-campaign the initiative, a message that readS “Goodbye Meta AI!” was shared by actors and sports personalities like James McAvoy and Tom Brady. According to The Guardian, this was before discovering that the post gave no privacy or copyright protection.
Meta had initially planned to scrap data from users’ Facebook and Instagram posts, images, and content to train its AI tools.
The company also appeared before lawmakers in Australia over the use of personal data to train its tools. The social media giant has since revealed its intention to continue with the exercise in the UK and Brazil.
However, according to The Guardian report, UK users who do not want Meta to use their Facebook and Instagram posts to train AI models must fill out an objection form available on their app’s privacy settings.
The report also indicates that Meta’s AI product users may not block their interactions with the AI tools, as opposed to their real social media posts from being used to train the Llama model.
About a week ago, the social media firm indicated it developed a new AI model known as Movie Gen, capable of creating video and audio clips. The new model is not yet available to the public, just like OpenAI’s Sora video model.
