Facebook parent company Meta Platforms Inc delayed its launch of the Meta artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot in Europe after regulators on the continent requested that the company pause its plan to train its large language models with posts from users there.
On Monday last week, Meta announced its intention to start training its large language model, called Llama, using public posts generated by European users.
On Friday, it updated that statement to say those plans have been delayed indefinitely after the Irish Data Protection Commission pushed back on the decision.
Photo: Reuters
“This is a step backwards for European innovation, competition in AI development and further delays bringing the benefits of AI to people in Europe,” Meta wrote in a blog post. “Put simply, without including local information we’d only be able to offer people a second-rate experience. This means we aren’t able to launch Meta AI in Europe at the moment.”
A Meta spokesperson confirmed the company still plans to bring these products to Europe, but declined to share a timeline for when that would happen. At the end of last year, Facebook had 308 million daily active users in Europe, to the company’s financial statements showed.
Meta has been pouring significant resources into AI technology to keep pace with other tech giants, including Alphabet Inc’s Google, Microsoft Corp and OpenAI. The company debuted its latest large language model, Llama 3, in April, and already offers its Meta AI assistant to users of its apps in the US. Large language models are the technology that underpins types of generative AI, including chatbots.
On Thursday, Meta was hit with a Norwegian complaint over its plans to use the images and posts of users on Facebook and Instagram to train AI models.
The process to opt out breaches strict EU data protection rules and “has been made deliberately cumbersome by using deceptive design patterns and vague wording,” the Norwegian Consumer Council said in a statement.
“We are urging the Data Protection Authority to assess the legality of Meta’s practices and to ensure that the company is operating in compliance of the law,” Norwegian Consumer Council director-general Inger Lise Blyverket said in the statement.
The legal complaint was written by the European Center for Digital Rights and would be submitted to the Norwegian Data Protection Authority and other European data protection authorities.
The Irish Data Protection Commission is the lead authority for Meta, which has its EU base in Dublin.
Semiconductor shares in China surged yesterday after Reuters reported the US had ordered chipmaking giant Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to halt shipments of advanced chips to Chinese customers, which investors believe could accelerate Beijing’s self-reliance efforts. TSMC yesterday started to suspend shipments of certain sophisticated chips to some Chinese clients after receiving a letter from the US Department of Commerce imposing export restrictions on those products, Reuters reported on Sunday, citing an unnamed source. The US imposed export restrictions on TSMC’s 7-nanometer or more advanced designs, Reuters reported. Investors figured that would encourage authorities to support China’s industry and bought shares
TECH WAR CONTINUES: The suspension of TSMC AI chips and GPUs would be a heavy blow to China’s chip designers and would affect its competitive edge Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, is reportedly to halt supply of artificial intelligence (AI) chips and graphics processing units (GPUs) made on 7-nanometer or more advanced process technologies from next week in order to comply with US Department of Commerce rules. TSMC has sent e-mails to its Chinese AI customers, informing them about the suspension starting on Monday, Chinese online news outlet Ijiwei.com (愛集微) reported yesterday. The US Department of Commerce has not formally unveiled further semiconductor measures against China yet. “TSMC does not comment on market rumors. TSMC is a law-abiding company and we are
FLEXIBLE: Taiwan can develop its own ground station equipment, and has highly competitive manufacturers and suppliers with diversified production, the MOEA said The Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) yesterday disputed reports that suppliers to US-based Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) had been asked to move production out of Taiwan. Reuters had reported on Tuesday last week that Elon Musk-owned SpaceX had asked their manufacturers to produce outside of Taiwan given geopolitical risks and that at least one Taiwanese supplier had been pushed to relocate production to Vietnam. SpaceX’s requests place a renewed focus on the contentious relationship Musk has had with Taiwan, especially after he said last year that Taiwan is an “integral part” of China, sparking sharp criticism from Taiwanese authorities. The ministry said
US President Joe Biden’s administration is racing to complete CHIPS and Science Act agreements with companies such as Intel Corp and Samsung Electronics Co, aiming to shore up one of its signature initiatives before US president-elect Donald Trump enters the White House. The US Department of Commerce has allocated more than 90 percent of the US$39 billion in grants under the act, a landmark law enacted in 2022 designed to rebuild the domestic chip industry. However, the agency has only announced one binding agreement so far. The next two months would prove critical for more than 20 companies still in the process
RSS