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The
EU code is voluntary and complements the EU’s AI Act, a
comprehensive set of regulations that was approved last year and
is taking effect in phases.
The code focuses on three areas: transparency requirements for
providers of AI models that are looking to integrate them into
their products; copyright protections; and safety and security
of the most advanced AI systems
The AI Act’s rules on general purpose artificial intelligence
are set to take force on Aug. 2. The bloc’s AI Office, under its
executive Commission, won't start enforcing them for at least a
year.
General purpose AI, exemplified by chatbots like OpenAI’s
ChatGPT, can do many different tasks and underpin many of the AI
systems that companies are using across the EU.
Under the AI Act, uses of artificial intelligence face different
levels of scrutiny depending on the level of risk they pose,
with some uses deemed unacceptable banned entirely. Violations
could draw fines of up to 35 million euros ($41 million), or 7%
of a company’s global revenue.
Some Big Tech companies such as Meta have resisted the
regulations, saying they're unworkable, and U.S. Vice President
JD Vance, speaking at a Paris summit in February, criticized
“excessive regulation” of AI, warning it could kill "a
transformative industry just as it’s taking off.”
More recently, more than 40 European companies, including
Airbus, Mercedes-Benz, Philips and French AI startup Mistral,
urged the bloc in an open letter to postpone the regulations for
two years. They say more time is needed to simplify “unclear,
overlapping and increasingly complex EU regulations” that put
the continent's competitiveness in the global AI race at risk.
There was no sign that Brussels was prepared to stop the clock.
“Today’s publication of the final version of the Code of
Practice for general-purpose AI marks an important step in
making the most advanced AI models available in Europe not only
innovative but also safe and transparent," the commission's
executive vice president for tech sovereignty, security and
democracy, Henna Virkkunen, said in a news release.
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