The social media giant said last Monday that its generative AI features need to be trained on European data to reflect “the diverse languages, geography and cultural references of the people in Europe who will use them”.

The data in question would include “information that people over 18 in Europe have chosen to share publicly on Meta’s products and services, such as public posts, public comments, or public photos and their captions”.

Meta also said it was already “in consultation with our lead privacy regulator in the EU, the Irish Data Protection Commission, and have incorporated their feedback to date to ensure that the way we train AI at Meta complies with EU privacy laws”.

However, the DPC subsequently asked Meta to hold off pending further engagement.

In a statement published Friday, the DPC said: “The DPC welcomes the decision by Meta to pause its plans to train its large language model using public content shared by adults on Facebook and Instagram across the EU/EEA.

“This decision followed intensive engagement between the DPC and Meta. The DPC, in co-operation with its fellow EU data protection authorities, will continue to engage with Meta on this issue.”

Meta agreed but said it was “disappointed by the request… particularly since we incorporated regulatory feedback and the European DPAs have been informed since March”.

“This is a step backwards for European innovation, competition in AI development and further delays bringing the benefits of AI to people in Europe,” it said in a statement.

“We remain highly confident that our approach complies with European laws and regulations. AI training is not unique to our services, and we’re more transparent than many of our industry counterparts.

“We are committed to bringing Meta AI, along with the models that power it, to more people around the world, including in Europe. But, 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.

“We will continue to work collaboratively with the DPC so that people in Europe have access to — and are properly served by — the same level of AI innovation as the rest of the world.

“This delay will also enable us to address specific requests we have received from the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), our UK regulator, ahead of starting the training.”