Meta has decided to not offer its upcoming multimodal AI model and future versions to customers in the European Union citing a lack of clarity from European regulators, according to a report by Axios. The models in question are designed to process not only text but also images and audio, and power AI capabilities in Meta platforms as well as the company's Ray-Ban smart glasses. "We will release a multimodal Llama model over the coming months, but not in the EU due to the unpredictable nature of the European regulatory environment," Meta said in a statement to Axios. Meta's move follows a similar decision by Apple, which recently announced it would not release its Apple Intelligence features in Europe due to regulatory concerns. Margrethe Vesteger, the EU's competition commissioner, had slammed Apple's move, saying that the company's decision was a "stunning, open declaration that they know 100 percent that this is another way of disabling competition where they have a stronghold already."

A change in political leadership with Donald Trump's presidential victory and GOP control of Congress has raised expectation of policy shifts that could affect the regulatory compliance process. The incoming administration is promising to work to "dismantle the Dodd-Frank Act and replace it with new policies to encourage economic growth and job creation." This scenario would have plusses and minuses. On one hand, bank stocks are on the rise because of Trump's promise to lessen regulation. On the other hand, a complete dismantling of Dodd-Frank would mean that banks would have to overhaul the compliance processes that they have spent billions of dollars to put in place over the past six years.