Meta faces Europe antitrust investigation over WhatsApp AI coverage


Meta has been hit with an EU antitrust investigation over its use of AI options in WhatsApp, because the European bloc continues to ramp up challenges to US large tech giants.

The probe will look at whether or not Meta’s new coverage on permitting AI suppliers’ entry to WhatsApp could breach EU competitors guidelines, Brussels stated in a press release Thursday morning.

“The claims are baseless,” a WhatsApp spokesperson instructed CNBC in a press release, including that the app’s utility programming interface (API) was not designed to assist AI chatbots and “places a pressure on our programs.”

“The AI area is extremely aggressive and folks have entry to the providers of their alternative in any variety of methods, together with app shops, search engines like google and yahoo, electronic mail providers, partnership integrations and working programs,” the corporate added.

It comes months on from the European Fee finning Google 2.95 billion euros ($3.45 billion) for breaching antitrust guidelines round internet advertising. In April, Apple was fined 500 million euros after being discovered to have breached anti-steering obligations. The identical month Meta was hit with a 200 million euros effective for breaching obligations to present customers the selection of a service that makes use of much less of their private knowledge.

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