EU AI Delay Tracker: Which AI products have been paused / not released in the EU?
I live in Europe, so I experience first-hand how several AI products have been not released in Europe due to Europe’s various regulations. I haven’t been able to find a single place tracking the things that are available elsewhere in the world but not Europe, so that’s what this page is for.
What rules & regulations are companies citing?
When a company says they can’t release an AI product in Europe, what excuses reasons do they give?
- GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation)
- DMA (The Digital Markets Act)
- AI Act (Artificial Intelligence Act) (comes into force on August 1, 2024)
List of companies and AI products delayed / not released in the EU
Meta: Multimodal Llama
18 July 2024
Meta says it won’t launch its multimodal AI model (which can handle text, images, video, and audio in the same model) in the EU.
Their excuse: “the unpredictable nature of the European regulatory environment”
Other story: It’s a GDPR issue, because that model is trained by scraping Facebook and Instagram data that users didn’t opt-in for, so users don’t have a way to opt-out of their data being included.
Products impacted: Potential upcoming release of the Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses.
Apple: Several Apple Intelligence Features
21 June 2024
Apple says they will not be able to release iPhone Mirroring, SharePlay Screen Sharing, and Apple Intelligence to users in the EU.
Their excuse: “regulatory uncertainties brought about by the Digital Markets Act (DMA), we do not believe that we will be able to roll out three of these features — iPhone Mirroring, SharePlay Screen Sharing enhancements, and Apple Intelligence — to our EU users this year. Specifically, we are concerned that the interoperability requirements of the DMA could force us to compromise the integrity of our products in ways that risk user privacy and data security.”
Products impacted: Apple Intelligence generative AI tools across all platforms, iPhone mirroring, SharePlay screen sharing.
General features not enabled in Europe
The AI Act bans certain AI uses, some of which are features of AI-powered products. This means that companies building AI-powered products might have different versions of their products for EU and non-EU users.
For example, emotion recognition in workplaces and educational institutions is prohibited. (There are exceptions for medical and safety purposes.) This means companies cannot use AI to analyze employees’ emotions or facial expressions, which is a feature in several AI-power meeting assistance & summary tools.
I’ll try to track a specific list, though it might get crazy pretty quick. For now, just be aware that if you’re looking at a product’s feature list, make sure you’re aware of what features they support in the EU, versus the rest of the world.