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Alphabet’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Google said it will sign the European Commission’s Code of Practice for the EU’s new set of rules governing AI, despite some concerns.
Google said in a blog post on Wednesday that it will join several other companies, including U.S. model providers, in signing the EU’s General Purpose AI Code of Practice with the hope that the Code, as applied, will promote European citizens’ and businesses’ access to secure, first-rate AI tools as they become available.
Kent Walker, president of Global Affairs at Google and Alphabet, said in the blog that Europe stands to gain significantly, potentially boosting its economy by 8% (€1.4T) annually by 2034.
Walker however noted that “we remain concerned that the AI Act and Code risk slowing Europe’s development and deployment of AI. In particular, departures from EU copyright law, steps that slow approvals, or requirements that expose trade secrets could chill European model development and deployment, harming Europe’s competitiveness.”
Earlier this month, Meta Platforms (META) said it would not sign the Code of Practice noting that the “code introduces a number of legal uncertainties for model developers, as well as measures which go far beyond the scope of the AI Act.”
Separately, earlier this month, in a letter signed by representatives from about 45 organizations, business leaders asked the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, to postpone implementation of the region’s AI regulation for two years because they say it puts Europe’s AI ambitions at risk. Some parts of the rules are set to come into effect next month.
The European Commission this month unveiled the GPAI Code of Practice, a voluntary tool prepared by independent experts in a multi-stakeholder process, designed to help industry comply with the AI Act’s obligations for providers of general-purpose AI models.
The framework includes copyright protections for creators and transparency requirements for advanced AI models. It also requires developers to provide documentation to describe the features of their AI models.
Last year in May, the Council of the European Union gave final approval to the tentative agreement endorsed by EU lawmakers on rules governing AI. The Council had said that the so-called artificial intelligence act follows a ‘risk-based’ approach, which means the higher the risk to cause harm to society, the stricter the rules.