Report from Politico
In Brief – Meta Platforms will not sign onto the Code of Practice for General-Purpose AI (GPAI) that provides guidance to comply with the EU AI Act. Meta is a leading critic of the EU’s drive to regulate AI. Joel Kaplan, the company’s top global public policy official, called the guidelines an overreach that goes beyond the scope of the legislation, with a post on LinkedIn saying, “This code introduces a number of legal uncertainties for model developers.” The GPAI code is technically a voluntary framework to help companies comply with the AI Act’s comprehensive regulations and is highlighted by sections to promote copyright protection for digital creators and transparency requirements for advanced AI models to help researchers and regulators try to protect users and society. The Commission has indicated that companies that do not adopt the voluntary code will have to demonstrate other means of compliance with the law and may be exposed to more regulatory scrutiny.
Context – The AI Act was initially designed as a regulatory regime for applications using AI, not to police the underlying AI technologies. But the EU Parliament changed course after the emergence of Chat-GPT, pushing to regulate core general purpose “foundation models”. This move was divisive among EU-based AI innovators from the beginning, and concerns have only grown. The US, UK, and Japan have since focused on encouraging AI investment rather than regulation. And while Trump Administration officials have criticized the AI Act, some European government leaders have also urged restraint. Top EU business and tech leaders have called on the Commission to delay the AI Act. Meta is also knee deep in regulatory conflicts with the European Commission over the DMA and DSA. Microsoft, OpenAI and Mistral on the other hand have expressed their interest in signing onto the new AI code. Finally, it will be interesting to see how Apple, Google, and X, all with their own DMA and DSA conflicts with the Commission, and likely hoping for helpful pressure from Washington, will fall out on the AI code.