After a short delay, Meta announced that it has begun rolling out certain AI features to users of its Ray-Ban Meta AR glasses in France, Italy, and Spain.
Starting today, people in these countries can use their voice to summon Meta AI, Meta's AI assistant, and ask common questions, such as “What's a good present for 6- and 8-year-olds?” ”). As part of the update, Meta AI now supports French, Italian, and Spanish in addition to English, Meta said.
“Since its launch in September 2023, we have worked diligently to ensure that Ray-Ban Metegane complies with Europe's complex regulatory regime,” the company said in a blog post. “We are excited to begin bringing Meta AI and its innovative capabilities to select regions of the EU and look forward to expanding to more European countries soon.”
This upgrade includes multimodal features available on Ray-Ban Meta glasses in the US, Canada, and Australia, the ability to get answers to questions about what the glasses' cameras see (for example, “Tell me more about this landmark. Please do not include. ”). Meta said it is working on bringing multimodality to more countries “in the future.”
Ray-Ban Meta glasses include a microphone and front-facing camera for AI-powered features. Image credit: Brian Heater
Meta has previously expressed concerns about its ability to comply with the AI Act, an EU law that establishes a legal and regulatory framework for AI, saying its implementation is “too unpredictable”. Another issue for the company is the provisions of the EU's privacy law, GDPR, regarding AI training. Meta trains AI models, including the one that powers the Ray-Ban Meta glasses, based on publicly available data from Instagram and Facebook users who have not opted out (data covered by GDPR guarantees in Europe).
Earlier this year, EU regulators asked Meta to halt training on European user data while they assessed the company's GDPR compliance. Mr Mehta did not give in, but at the same time supported an open letter calling for a “modern interpretation” of the GDPR that does not “reject progress”.
In early fall, Meta[incorporating] Incorporate “regulatory feedback” into the revised opt-out process. And soon after, the company brought select AI features to its Ray-Ban Meta glasses in the UK (and six other countries). However, Meta has yet to share updates on its model training practices across the rest of the bloc.