When you buy through affiliate links in our content, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Learn 
Meta has orchestrated an open letter addressed to the EU, backed by over 50 other companies, warning of the perils of inconsistent regulation on AI.
The communication was published as an ad in the Financial Times, stressing concern at the approach taken by the EU which is said to be causing the bloc to fall behind other regions.
As founder and CEO of Meta Platforms, Mark Zuckerberg provides a headline signature on the letter, joined by contemporaries from the likes of Ericsson, Spotify, Prada, and Harvard University.
The message critiques the EU’s bureaucracy, urging swifter action and clarity.
“Europe has become less competitive and less innovative compared to other regions and it now risks falling further behind in the AI era due to inconsistent regulatory decision making,” the letter states.
Also published online as EU Needs AI, it outlined some specific areas troubling the signatories, with urgent attention desired.
“The first is developments in ‘open’ models that are made available without charge for everyone to use, modify, and build on, multiplying the benefits and spreading social and economic opportunity. The second is the latest ‘multimodal’ models, which operate fluidly across text, images, and speech and will enable the next leap forward in AI.”
Meta, along with 59 other companies including Spotify and Ericsson, have written an open letter to the EU calling for AI regulatory certainty. The letter was published today in multiple outlets across the EU. This one is from the FT. pic.twitter.com/hFf8OziNVg
— Andrew Curran (@AndrewCurran_) September 19, 2024
Balancing Act of Protecting Consumers Against Commercial Interests
The collective address continued to detail the finer points before a direct rebuttal of the ambiguity around what data can be used to train AI models and the problems caused. Intervention from European Data Protection Authorities (DPAs) will potentially mean AI programs will lose out on Europe-specific training.
The letter summarized the position with a request for “harmonized, consistent, quick and clear decisions under EU data regulations that enable European data to be used in AI training for the benefit of Europeans.”
Aspects of the criticism aimed at the EU may be justified, but the crux of the issue is the regulatory balancing act, protecting consumers versus the interests of commercial entities.
As AI continues to grow and evolve, regulation and consensus is more prevalent. The EU’s AI Act was the first wide-reaching regional law, while the Council of Europe’s non-binding international treaty on AI has been endorsed by the United States, the United Kingdom, and the EU.
