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More than 160 technology executives from around the world have written an open letter to European Union lawmakers urging them to be careful about artificial intelligence (AI) rules so as not to slow down the industry or markets.
On June 30, executives from companies such as Renault, Meta, Spanish telecommunications company Cellnex and German investment bank Berenberg pointed to a proposed EU AI law, saying it potentially jeopardizes competitiveness and innovation in the region.
In particular, he warned that the rules proposed by the EU would lead to heavy regulation of generative AI tools and entail both liability risks and costly compliance costs for companies developing the technology.
Two weeks before the letter, on June 14, the European Parliament passed the original EU AI Act, which includes a law requiring systems such as ChatGPT to disclose all AI-generated content and other measures against illegal content.
In addition, the laws in their current form intend to ban the use of certain AI services and products. Complete bans have been placed on technologies such as the public use of biometric surveillance, social scoring systems, predictive policing, so-called “emotion recognition” and off-target facial recognition systems.
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Before the bill becomes law, there will be individual talks between MPs to finalize the details of the EU AI Act. This recent letter comes as there is still time for tech companies to ask lawmakers for more lenient measures.
The day before the letter was released, the Microsoft president visited Europe to speak with regulators about how best to regulate AI.
Back in May, Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, also spoke to European regulators in Brussels. He warned of the possible negative effects of over-regulation on the AI industry.
The head of the EU’s tech department is officially pushing for the EU and the US to come together to create a voluntary “AI code of conduct” to be adopted while lawmakers finalize more permanent measures.
In March, another open letter was published by over 2,600 tech industry leaders and researchers, including Elon Musk. However, he then called for a temporary pause in the further development of AI and asked for rules.