In a bid to stave off a major investigation by the European Commission, Meta said on Thursday that it would allow AI companies to offer their chatbots on WhatsApp via its business API for the next 12 months in Europe. The move comes a month after the European Commission told Meta that it intended to impose interim measures in order to stop the company from implementing its policy, which barred third-party AI chatbot providers from using the WhatsApp Business API to offer their services on the app. “For the next 12 months, we’ll support general-purpose AI chatbots using the WhatsApp Business API in Europe in response to the European Commission’s regulatory process,” the company said in an emailed statement.…