More than 160 tech executives from around the world have issued an open letter to lawmakers in the European Union urging careful consideration of artificial intelligence (AI) regulations to avoid slowing down industries or markets.
On June 30, managers of companies such as Renault, Meta, the Spanish telecommunications company Cellnex and the German investment bank Berenberg spoke, pointed to the EU’s proposed artificial intelligence law, which it says potentially threatens the region’s competitiveness and innovation.
More specifically, it warned that the EU’s proposed rules would create heavy regulation of generative AI tools, creating both liability risks and expensive compliance costs for companies developing the technology.
Two weeks before the letter, 14 June, European Parliament approved the original EU law on artificial intelligencewhich includes legislation that would force systems like ChatGPT publish all AI generated contentand other measures against illegal content.
In addition, the laws as they currently stand are intended to prohibit the use of certain AI services and products. Technologies such as public use of biometric surveillance, social scoring systems, predictive policing, so-called “emotion recognition” and non-targeted facial recognition systems have been completely banned.
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Before the draft law actually becomes law, individual negotiations will take place between MPs to finalize the details of the EU law on artificial intelligence. This recent letter comes as tech companies still have time to ask lawmakers for more lenient measures.
The day before the letter was issued, the president of Microsoft paid a visit to Europe to talk to regulators about how best to regulate artificial intelligence.
In May, Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, he also spoke with European regulators in Brussels. He issued a warning about the potential negative effects of excessive regulation on the AI industry.
The head of technology for the EU is pushing for a record for the EU and the US to unite create a voluntary “AI code of conduct” to be put in place in the meantime while lawmakers finalize more permanent measures.
Another open letter was released in March from more than 2,600 tech industry leaders and researchers, including Elon Musk. However then that called for a temporary pause on the further development of artificial intelligence and requests a regulation.
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