PARIS, March 20, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta said Thursday it would launch its generative artificial intelligence assistant Meta AI in the European Union from "this week", more than a year after the service's US release.

"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," the company said in a statement.

"Starting this week, Meta AI will begin rolling out across 41 European countries."

Meta AI was first unveiled for the US in September 2023, then rolled out across all the group's applications in April 2024.

Although image generation is available in the US, in the EU the generative AI tool will craft text-only responses to users' questions. Meta AI can also draw on web search for its answers.

The company said the bot's inclusion in conversations could help "deep dive on topics of interest, or get help with a 'how-to' or a problem that needs solving" such as planning a trip.

Developing "large language models" (LLMs) like Meta AI requires vast reserves of data, which is heavily regulated in the European Union where it relates to individual users.

Meta's bot available in the EU was not trained on data from EU users.

Until now, the company had held off on introducing its AI in the bloc, saying it was unclear how authorities might interpret overlapping rules on data protection, AI and digital markets.

Europe suffers from a "fragmented regulatory structure riddled with inconsistent implementation," chief executive Mark Zuckerburg said in an August op-ed piece for the Economist newspaper co-written with Spotify chief Daniel Ek.

- 700 million users -

Meta now appears to have overcome those hurdles for the 41 European countries and six languages it operates in.

AI is an overriding priority for Meta as for other Silicon Valley giants.

The group plans to invest $60-65 billion this year, with much of the cash going into data centres, servers and network infrastructure necessary to develop AI models.

"This is a massive effort, and over the coming years it will drive our core products and business, unlock historic innovation, and extend American technology leadership," Zuckerberg said in January as he announced Meta's 2024 financial results.

For now, Meta claims around 700 million monthly active users for its AI assistant -- still somewhat shy of the one billion Zuckerberg said was needed to secure "a durable long-term advantage".