Tech Giants Criticize EU AI Regulation

Technology leaders co-signed an open letter criticizing the European Union’s AI and data privacy rules. The companies are warning lawmakers that a fragmented approach will further stunt the bloc’s economic and technological advancement.

More than 40 executives and researchers, including Ericsson CEO Borje Ekholm, Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and Spotify boss Daniel Ek, signed the letter which states Europe has become less competitive and less innovative compared to other regions due to inconsistent regulatory decision-making. The companies, which include technology and research institutions, also bemoaned interventions by data protection authorities which has led to uncertainty around what kind of datasets can be used to train models.

“This means the next generation of open source AI models, and products, services we build on them, won’t understand or reflect European knowledge, culture or languages,” the letter read. Executives are also warning that the continent will miss out on innovations such as the Meta AI assistant, with the European rollout of the service delayed due to data privacy concerns.

EU’s landmark AI Act officially entered into force last month, requiring companies to meet transparency requirements, publish detailed reports of the content used in AI training, and conduct safety tests before launching AI products. The lack of clarity and harmonization in rules policing the development and deployment of AI will prevent the EU from reaping the benefits of open-sourced and multimodal models, which the signatories described as the two cornerstones of AI innovation.

The letter further argues the unavailability of frontier-level models like Llama will deprive Europeans of the technological advances enjoyed in the US, China, and India, as the technology has progressed research in various industries. “EU regulators can choose to reassert the principle of harmonization enshrined in regulatory frameworks like the GDPR so that AI innovation happens here at the same scale and speed as elsewhere. Or, it can continue to reject progress, betray the ambitions of the single market, and watch as the rest of the world builds on technologies that Europeans will not have access to,” the letter added.