The EU regulations could result in highly innovative companies relocating their operations outside of Europe, the letter stated.
Over 160 executives from prominent companies, including Renault and Meta, have expressed in an open letter their concerns regarding the proposed Artificial Intelligence (AI) legislation by the European Union lawmakers. According to the executives, these regulations could potentially undermine Europe’s competitiveness and technological sovereignty.
The recent letter challenging the EU regulations was signed by Yann LeCun, another prominent AI expert affiliated with Meta. Executives from diverse companies such as Cellnex, Mirakl, and Berenberg also signed the letter, which highlights worries that the proposed EU rules would heavily regulate technologies like generative AI. This could lead to significant compliance costs and disproportionate liability risks for companies involved in developing such systems.
In addition, such regulations could result in highly innovative companies relocating their operations outside of Europe, and investors withdrawing their capital from the European AI sector. Last month, Sam Altman – the chief executive officer of ChatGPT’s parent company OpenAI – said the company might consider leaving Europe if it could not comply with the European Union’s upcoming regulations on artificial intelligence. The current draft of the EU AI Act suggests that it could be “over-regulating,” Altman added.
It is worth noting that while there is a growing consensus on the need for responsible AI regulation, there is also a concern about striking the right balance between regulation and fostering innovation.
In the past, there have been multiple open letters advocating for AI regulation due to concerns about the potential risks and “risk of extinction” associated with AI. In April, Tesla chief Elon Musk along with a group of AI experts called all AI labs to immediately pause the training of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4 for at least six months.
In April, the EU proposed new copyright rules for generative AI tools like ChatGPT. The draft rules, agreed upon by EU lawmakers, require AI systems such as ChatGPT to disclose AI-generated content, differentiate between deep-fake and genuine images, and implement measures to combat illegal content. The EU lawmakers reached common ground on the draft of the act last month. The remaining aspects of the bill will now be debated in the Parliament before reaching a consensus on its final details.
In the meantime, the proposal is seen to pave the way for the world’s first comprehensive laws governing the AI technology that has taken the world by storm since the launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in November last year. The Microsoft-backed ChatGPT, short for Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer, has been the center of attention due to its human-like response.
