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Tech giants continue push to dilute Europe’s AI Act

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Tech giants continue push to dilute Europe’s AI Act

The EU is a supranational political and economic union of 27 member states. Credit: Shutterstock/Fabrizio Maffei.

The world’s biggest technology companies have embarked on a final push to persuade the EU to take a light-touch approach to regulating AI as they seek to fend off the risk of billions of dollars in fines.

EU lawmakers in May agreed to the AI Act, the world’s first comprehensive set of rules governing the technology, following months of intense negotiations between different political groups.

However, until the law’s accompanying codes of practice have been finalised, it remains unclear how strictly rules around ‘general purpose’ AI (GPAI) systems such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT will be enforced and how many copyright lawsuits and multibillion dollar fines companies may face.

“The code of practice is crucial. If we get it right, we will be able to continue innovating,” said Boniface de Champris, a senior policy manager at trade organisation CCIA Europe, whose members include Amazon, Google and Meta.

“If it is too narrow or too specific, that will become very difficult,” he added.

The EU has invited companies, academics and others to help draft the code of practice, receiving nearly 1,000 applications, an unusually high number, according to sources.

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The AI code of practice will not be legally binding when it takes effect late next year, but it will provide companies with a checklist they can use to demonstrate their compliance.

A company claiming to follow the law while ignoring the code could face a legal challenge.

Companies such as Stability AI and OpenAI have faced questions over whether using bestselling books or photo archives to train their models without their creators’ permission is a breach of copyright.

Under the AI Act, companies will be obliged to provide “detailed summaries” of the data used to train their models, and in theory a content creator who discovered their work had been used to train an AI model may be able to seek compensation, although this is being tested in the courts.

Amazon said it hopes to “contribute our expertise and ensure the code of practice succeeds”, with Maximilian Gahntz, AI policy lead for the non-profit behind web browser Firefox, expressing concern.

He said the companies may try to avoid transparency. “The AI Act presents the best chance to shine a light on this crucial aspect and illuminate at least part of the black box,” he said.


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