Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Spotify CEO Daniel Ek join forces to challenge EU AI law
In a joint statement released on 24 August 2024, the two argued that the EU’s fragmented and rigid regulatory strategy was stifling innovation and putting European businesses at risk.
This comes just weeks after the EU’s groundbreaking AI law was formally published. Effective August 1st2024.
The bill’s strictest rules won’t come into effect until 2025 or 2026, but businesses need to start preparing to comply now or risk huge fines if they’re caught.
at Open letterZuckerberg and Ek have taken a strong stance on the benefits of AI, saying the technology has the “potential to transform the world, increase human productivity, accelerate scientific progress, and add trillions of dollars to the global economy.”
But they warn that EU regulation threatens the benefits of AI, and are particularly concerned about its impact on open-source AI development.
“We believe the next generation of ideas and startups will be built on open source AI, because it allows developers to integrate the latest innovations at a lower cost and gives organizations greater control over their data,” they wrote.
Zuckerberg also discussed the difficulties Meta faced in developing and releasing its AI models in Europe, where he said the company was unable to train its models on public data from Facebook and Instagram due to regulatory barriers.
Meta has already delayed its release. Bureaucracy has been cited as a reason for not leveraging the open-source Llama model in Europe.
Zuckerberg argues that these delays mean that “the most powerful AI models will not reflect Europe’s collective knowledge, culture, and language, and Europeans will not be able to use cutting-edge AI products.”
Spotify’s Ek echoed Zuckerberg’s sentiment that AI is critical to the company’s success, saying early AI investments have “delivered personalized experiences to every user that have allowed us to discover billions of artists and creators around the world.”
Critics have called the law “risk-averse” and “complicated,” warning that “ex-ante regulation of theoretical harms to emerging technologies like open-source AI will stifle innovation.”
They pointed to the uneven application of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) as an example of how well-intentioned policies can create unintended obstacles.
EU Bill Sets Laws on AI, But Consequences Await
So what is it about the EU’s approach to AI that makes Zuckerberg and Ek so aggressive?
The bill introduces a risk-based approach to classifying AI systems by their potential impact. It has been criticized for its tricky rules and poor definitions that don’t match industry terminology.
It’s not just Zuckerberg and Ekman. In June, more than 150 executives from major companies such as Renault, Heineken, Airbus and Siemens The impact of regulation on business.
Jeannette zu Fürstenberg, founding partner of Berlin-based venture capital fund La Famiglia VC, warned of “catastrophic consequences for European competitiveness”.
Nonetheless, now that the Act’s wheels are in motion, there is no going back. EU officials remain convinced they have made the right move.
Thomas Regnier, a European Commission spokesman, recently reassured: “This bill is not about stopping companies from launching systems. Quite the opposite. We want companies to operate in the EU, but we want to protect our citizens and companies.”
Whether the long-term impact of this bill matches Zuckerberg and Ek’s concerns will soon be known, but it will probably take another year or so.