Tech Giants Challenge European AI Regulations

Meta, Spotify CEOs take aim at European AI regulations

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Spotify CEO Daniel Ek have criticised European regulations surrounding open-source artificial intelligence, saying the continent risks falling behind because of complex rules. Europe, which "has more open-source developers than America", is well placed to make the most of the open-source AI wave, the CEOs said in a joint statement on Friday. "Yet its fragmented regulatory structure, riddled with inconsistent implementation, is hampering innovation and holding back developers." The CEOs said the tech industry in Europe faces "overlapping regulations and inconsistent guidance on how to comply with them" instead of clear rules. A streamlined regulatory framework would not only accelerate the growth of open-source AI, but also provide support to European developers and the broader creator ecosystem, they said. The Irish privacy regulator in June asked Meta to not launch its AI models in Europe for the time being, after the company was told to delay plans of harnessing data from Facebook and Instagram users. Given the current regulations, Meta will not be able to release its upcoming AI models such as Llama multimodal, which has the capability to understand images, in Europe. This would mean Europeans will be "left with AI built for someone else," the CEOs said. Spotify pointed to its early investment in AI to create personalized experiences for users that has led to the streaming service's success. Laws that have been designed to increase European sovereignty and competitiveness are achieving the opposite, they said, adding Europe should be "simplifying and harmonizing regulations by leveraging the benefits of a single yet diverse market." The CEOs concluded that Europe needs a new approach with clearer policies and more consistent enforcement, adding it will miss a "once-in-a-generation opportunity" on its current path. The EU Commission did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Read Comments

Meta, Spotify CEOs take aim at European AI regulations

Europe, which "has more open-source developers than America", is well placed to make the most of the open-source AI wave, the CEOs said in a joint statement on Friday. "Yet its fragmented regulatory structure, riddled with inconsistent implementation, is hampering innovation and holding back developers." The CEOs said the tech industry in Europe faces "overlapping regulations and inconsistent guidance on how to comply with them" instead of clear rules.Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Spotify CEO Daniel Ek have critisised European regulations surrounding open-source artificial intelligence, saying the continent risks falling behind because of complex rules. Europe, which "has more open-source developers than America", is well placed to make the most of the open-source AI wave, the CEOs said in a joint statement on Friday. "Yet its fragmented regulatory structure, riddled with inconsistent implementation, is hampering innovation and holding back developers." The CEOs said the tech industry in Europe faces "overlapping regulations and inconsistent guidance on how to comply with them" instead of clear rules. A streamlined regulatory framework would not only accelerate the growth of open-source AI, but also provide support to European developers and the broader creator ecosystem, they said. The Irish privacy regulator in June asked Meta to not launch its AI models in Europe for the time being, after the company was told to delay plans of harnessing data from Facebook and Instagram users. Given the current regulations, Meta will not be able to release its upcoming AI models such as Llama multimodal, which has the capability to understand images, in Europe. This would mean Europeans will be "left with AI built for someone else," the CEOs said. Spotify pointed to its early investment in AI to create personalised experiences for users that has led to the streaming service's success. Laws that have been designed to increase European sovereignty and competitiveness are achieving the opposite, they said, adding Europe should be "simplifying and harmonising regulations by leveraging the benefits of a single yet diverse market." The CEOs concluded that Europe needs a new approach with clearer policies and more consistent enforcement, adding it will miss a "once-in-a-generation opportunity" on its current path. The EU Commission did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Meta, Spotify CEOs take aim at European AI regulations

(Reuters) - Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Spotify CEO Daniel Ek have critisised European regulations surrounding open-source artificial intelligence, saying the continent risks falling behind because of complex rules. Europe, which "has more open-source developers than America", is well placed to make the most of the open-source AI wave, the CEOs said in a joint statement on Friday. "Yet its fragmented regulatory structure, riddled with inconsistent implementation, is hampering innovation and holding back developers." The CEOs said the tech industry in Europe faces "overlapping regulations and inconsistent guidance on how to comply with them" instead of clear rules. A streamlined regulatory framework would not only accelerate the growth of open-source AI, but also provide support to European developers and the broader creator ecosystem, they said. The Irish privacy regulator in June asked Meta to not launch its AI models in Europe for the time being, after the company was told to delay plans of harnessing data from Facebook and Instagram users. Given the current regulations, Meta will not be able to release its upcoming AI models such as Llama multimodal, which has the capability to understand images, in Europe. This would mean Europeans will be "left with AI built for someone else," the CEOs said. Spotify pointed to its early investment in AI to create personalised experiences for users that has led to the streaming service's success. Laws that have been designed to increase European sovereignty and competitiveness are achieving the opposite, they said, adding Europe should be "simplifying and harmonising regulations by leveraging the benefits of a single yet diverse market." The CEOs concluded that Europe needs a new approach with clearer policies and more consistent enforcement, adding it will miss a "once-in-a-generation opportunity" on its current path. The EU Commission did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. (Reporting by Juby Babu in Mexico City; Editing by Shreya Biswas)

Meta, Spotify CEOs take aim at European AI regulations

"Yet its fragmented regulatory structure, riddled with inconsistent implementation, is hampering innovation and holding back developers." The CEOs said the tech industry in Europe faces "overlapping regulations and inconsistent guidance on how to comply with them" instead of clear rules. A streamlined regulatory framework would not only accelerate the growth of open-source AI, but also provide support to European developers and the broader creator ecosystem, they said. The Irish privacy regulator in June asked Meta to not launch its AI models in Europe for the time being, after the company was told to delay plans of harnessing data from Facebook and Instagram users. Given the current regulations, Meta will not be able to release its upcoming AI models such as Llama multimodal, which has the capability to understand images, in Europe. This would mean Europeans will be "left with AI built for someone else," the CEOs said. Spotify pointed to its early investment in AI to create personalised experiences for users that has led to the streaming service's success. Laws that have been designed to increase European sovereignty and competitiveness are achieving the opposite, they said, adding Europe should be "simplifying and harmonising regulations by leveraging the benefits of a single yet diverse market." The CEOs concluded that Europe needs a new approach with clearer policies and more consistent enforcement, adding it will miss a "once-in-a-generation opportunity" on its current path. The EU Commission did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. (Reporting by Juby Babu in Mexico City; Editing by Shreya Biswas)

Meta, Spotify CEOs slam AI regulation in the EU (NASDAQ:META)

Meta Platforms' (NASDAQ:META) CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Spotify's (NYSE:SPOT) boss Daniek Ek criticized European lawmakers for complex regulations and guidance around open-source AI -- models, saying it is ultimately holding back innovation. Both CEO said instead of clear rules that inform and guide how firms can do business across Europe, the tech companies face overlapping regulations and inconsistency in guidance on how to comply with them, especially at a time when the continent is "particularly well placed" to make the most of this open-source AI wave. "Without urgent changes, European businesses, academics and others risk missing out on the next wave of technology investment and economic-growth opportunities," they wrote in a joint statement. Zuckerberg and Ek pointed towards EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and said the regulators are "creating delays and uncertainty" with the uneven application of the law. GDPR sets guidance on how personal data can be processed and transferred. Meta, in June, said it will not offer its multimodal AI model to customers in the EU due to a lack of clarity from regulators in the region. The social media company faced backlash when advocacy group NOYB filed complaints with 11 European nations, alleging that Meta plans to use personal data to train its artificial intelligence models without seeking user consent. Earlier in the year, several consumer groups in the European Union also filed complaints with their national data watchdogs against Meta, alleging breaches of the bloc's privacy rules related to user data. Spotify's early investment in AI is noted as a reason behind its success by the CEOs, who added that there is tremendous potential to use open-source AI to benefit the streaming industry in the future. "Regulating against known harms is necessary, but pre-emptive regulation of theoretical harms for nascent technologies such as open-source AI will stifle innovation. Europe's risk-averse, complex regulation could prevent it from capitalising on the big bets that can translate into big rewards," the CEOs noted.

Meta, Spotify CEOs slap down European officials for 'stifling' AI innovation

Naturally, Zuckerberg and Ek want fewer rules and more freedom Meta's CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Spotify's CEO Daniek Ek have taken aim at European lawmakers for enforcing "stifling" and "inconsistent" regulation that hampers the growth of tech companies. "Instead of clear rules that inform and guide how companies do business across the continent, our industry faces overlapping regulations and inconsistent guidance on how to comply with them," wrote the pair in an op-ed Wednesday. "Without urgent action, Europe will miss this once-in-a-generation opportunity." That opportunity, of course, is the rise of artificial intelligence. More specifically, open-source AI -- like Meta's Llama LLM -- released publicly under a licence. Europe, with its vast pool of open-source developers, is uniquely positioned to thrive in this space. Yet, regulatory inconsistencies, like those in the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), are hampering AI development and deployment, say the tech billionaires. They use the example of the EU forcing Meta to delay training its LLMs on content from Facebook and Instagram users in the bloc over privacy concerns. "Delaying the use of data that is routinely used in other regions means the most powerful AI models won't reflect the collective knowledge, culture, and languages of Europe -- and Europeans won't get to use the latest AI products," wrote Zuckerberg and Ek. At the time, Austrian non-profit Noyb criticised Meta's framing of the delay as a collective punishment. "Meta could roll out AI technology in Europe, if it would just bother to ask people to agree, but it seems Meta is doing everything it can to never get opt-in consent for any processing," it said. While Meta is perhaps exaggerating in this case, the fact that European innovation is lagging behind is undeniable. While Spotify, currently valued at $68bn, has been hugely successful, it's the exception rather than the rule. Almost all of the world's most valuable startups are based in the US and Asia. "Europe needs a new approach, with clearer policies and more consistent enforcement," said the two founders. "Combined with the right ambition and some of the world's top AI talent, the EU would have a real chance of leading the next generation of tech innovation."

Meta and Spotify CEOs criticize AI regulation in the EU | TechCrunch

Meta and Spotify are once again teaming up -- this time, on the matter of open-source (or to be precise, open-weight) AI which the companies claim are being hampered by regulations. In joint statements published to both companies' respective websites on Friday, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Spotify CEO Daniel Ek complain that EU privacy regulations around AI are holding back innovation. Meta, for instance, points out that it has been prevented from being able to train its AI models on public data across Facebook and Instagram because regulators haven't crafted legislation to address how this should be handled as of yet. "In the short term, delaying the use of data that is routinely used in other regions means the most powerful AI models won't reflect the collective knowledge, culture, and languages of Europe -- and Europeans won't get to use the latest AI products," Meta's blog post warns. It also stresses that Europeans won't be able to access the latest open-source technology and instead will be left with AI "built for someone else." The post additionally confirmed previous reports that Meta would withhold its next multimodel AI model from customers in the European Union due to a lack of clarity from regulators. Notes Meta, it will not be able to release upcoming AI models like Llama multimodel, which has the ability to understand images because of this. Meanwhile, Spotify points to its early investment in AI technology as a reason why its streaming service became so successful in the first place, as it developed a personalized experience for each individual user. "As we look to the future of streaming, we see tremendous potential to use open-source AI to benefit the industry. This is especially important when it comes to how AI can help more artists get discovered. A simplified regulatory structure would not only accelerate the growth of open-source AI but also provide crucial support to European developers and the broader creator ecosystem that contributes to and thrives on these innovations," its post reads. Reading between the lines, it's not a stretch to assume that Spotify would like to use Meta's AI technology to improve its products but is similarly impacted by the lack of clarity around AI regulations in the EU. Of course, neither of these companies are against regulation when it works to their advantage. For instance, the two share a common enemy in Apple -- specifically, its App Store monopoly, which saw EU regulators dubbing the iPhone maker a Big Tech "gatekeeper" before forcing it to open up to alternative app stores, app distribution methods, and payment systems, among other things. Meta and Spotify didn't criticize the regulation itself, only how Apple had responded. In this case, Zuckerberg joined Ek in criticizing Apple's new business rules for EU developers under the region's Digital Markets Act (DMA) -- as being so onerous that he doubted any developer would opt in. Spotify had also called Apple's compliance plan "extortion" and a "complete and total farce." Meta and Spotify have a history of working together in recent years, having earlier teamed up on music initiatives that included a miniplayer on Facebook that streamed Spotify directly from the app.

CEOs of Meta and Spotify Say EU Regulations 'Stifle Innovation'

European Union (EU) regulations impacting artificial intelligence (AI) may deny the region's businesses, academics and others the chance to participate in new technology investment and economic growth opportunities, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Spotify CEO Daniel Ek wrote in a joint statement released Friday (Aug. 23). The CEOs wrote in the statement that tech companies doing business in Europe face "overlapping regulations and inconsistent guidance on how to comply with them." "Regulating against known harms is necessary, but pre-emptive regulation of theoretical harms for nascent technologies such as open-source AI will stifle innovation," they wrote. "Europe's risk-averse, complex regulation could prevent it from capitalizing on the big bets that can translate into big rewards." The statement highlighted a recent application of the European Union's (EU) General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) that required Meta to delay training its AI models on content shared publicly by adults on its social media platforms, Facebook and Meta. "In the short term, delaying the use of data that is routinely used in other regions means the most powerful AI models won't reflect the collective knowledge, culture and languages of Europe -- and Europeans won't get to use the latest AI products," the CEOs wrote. They added that because of the current regulatory uncertainty in the region, Meta won't be able to release upcoming models there, European organizations won't be able to access the latest open-source technology and European citizens will have to use others' AI. "In short, Europe needs a new approach with clearer policies and more consistent enforcement," Zuckerberg and Ek wrote in the statement. "With the right regulatory environment, combined with the right ambition and some of the world's top AI talent, the EU would have a real chance of leading the next generation of tech innovation." There have been concerns that the retreat of Meta, Apple and other AI companies from offering advanced AI services in the EU could significantly impact commerce by limiting the availability of cutting-edge tools for businesses operating in the region, PYMNTS reported in July. In June, European privacy group NOYB filed complaints with 11 European countries, arguing that Meta's use of user data for AI training violates the GDPR. "Meta is basically saying that it can use 'any data from any source for any purpose and make it available to anyone in the world,' as long as it's done via 'AI technology,'" NYOB founder Max Schrems said at the time in a press release. "This is clearly the opposite of GDPR compliance."

Meta Platforms : Mark Zuckerberg and Daniel Ek on Why Europe Should Embrace Open-Source AI

It risks falling behind because of incoherent and complex regulation, say the two tech CEOs This is an important moment in technology. Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to transform the world-increasing human productivity, accelerating scientific progress and adding trillions of dollars to the global economy. But, as with every innovative leap forward, some are better positioned than others to benefit. The gaps between those with access to build with this extraordinary technology and those without are already beginning to appear. That is why a key opportunity for European organisations is through open-source AI-models whose weights are released publicly with a permissive licence. This ensures power isn't concentrated among a few large players and, as with the internet before it, creates a level playing field. The internet largely runs on open-source technologies, and so do most leading tech companies. We believe the next generation of ideas and startups will be built with open-source AI, because it lets developers incorporate the latest innovations at low cost and gives institutions more control over their data. It is the best shot at harnessing AI to drive progress and create economic opportunity and security for everyone. Meta open-sources many of its AI technologies, including its state-of-the-art Llama large language models, and public institutions and researchers are already using these models to speed up medical research and preserve languages. With more open-source developers than America has, Europe is particularly well placed to make the most of this open-source AI wave. Yet its fragmented regulatory structure, riddled with inconsistent implementation, is hampering innovation and holding back developers. Instead of clear rules that inform and guide how companies do business across the continent, our industry faces overlapping regulations and inconsistent guidance on how to comply with them. Without urgent changes, European businesses, academics and others risk missing out on the next wave of technology investment and economic-growth opportunities. Spotify is proud to be held up as a European tech success but we are also well aware that we remain one of only a few. Looking back, it's clear that our early investment in AI made the company what it is today: a personalised experience for every user that has led to billions of discoveries of artists and creators around the world. As we look to the future of streaming, we see tremendous potential to use open-source AI to benefit the industry. This is especially important when it comes to how AI can help more artists get discovered. A simplified regulatory structure would not only accelerate the growth of open-source AI but also provide crucial support to European developers and the broader creator ecosystem that contributes to and thrives on these innovations. Regulating against known harms is necessary, but pre-emptive regulation of theoretical harms for nascent technologies such as open-source AI will stifle innovation. Europe's risk-averse, complex regulation could prevent it from capitalising on the big bets that can translate into big rewards. Take the uneven application of the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). This landmark directive was meant to harmonise the use and flow of data, but instead EU privacy regulators are creating delays and uncertainty and are unable to agree among themselves on how the law should apply. For example, Meta has been told to delay training its models on content shared publicly by adults on Facebook and Instagram-not because any law has been violated but because regulators haven't agreed on how to proceed. In the short term, delaying the use of data that is routinely used in other regions means the most powerful AI models won't reflect the collective knowledge, culture and languages of Europe-and Europeans won't get to use the latest AI products. These concerns aren't theoretical. Given the current regulatory uncertainty, Meta won't be able to release upcoming models like Llama multimodal, which has the capability to understand images. That means European organisations won't be able to get access to the latest open-source technology, and European citizens will be left with AI built for someone else. The stark reality is that laws designed to increase European sovereignty and competitiveness are achieving the opposite. This isn't limited to our industry: many European chief executives, across a range of industries, cite a complex and incoherent regulatory environment as one reason for the continent's lack of competitiveness. Europe should be simplifying and harmonising regulations by leveraging the benefits of a single yet diverse market. Look no further than the growing gap between the number of homegrown European tech leaders and those from America and Asia-a gap that also extends to unicorns and other startups. Europe needs to make it easier to start great companies, and to do a better job of holding on to its talent. Many of its best and brightest minds in AI choose to work outside Europe. In short, Europe needs a new approach with clearer policies and more consistent enforcement. With the right regulatory environment, combined with the right ambition and some of the world's top AI talent, the EU would have a real chance of leading the next generation of tech innovation. We believe that open-source AI can help European organisations make the most of this new technology by levelling the playing field, and we hope that the EU doesn't limit the possibilities that we are only starting to explore. Though Spotify and Meta use AI in different ways, we agree that thoughtful, clear and consistent regulation can foster competition and innovation while also protecting people and giving them access to new technologies that empower them. While we can all hope that with time these laws become more refined, we also know that technology moves swiftly. On its current course, Europe will miss this once-in-a-generation opportunity. Because the one thing Europe doesn't have, unless it wants to risk falling further behind, is time.