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On September 19, 2024
7 Sources
[1]
Zuckerberg and Other CEOs Ask EU to Change Data Privacy Rules For AI
Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg and the CEOs of other firms including Spotify and Publicis published an open letter Thursday, asking EU authorities to come up with a "modern interpretation" of the region's consumer data protection rules or risk harming artificial intelligence development. Meta paid to publish the letter as an ad in newspapers such as the Financial Times. EU rules such as
[2]
Meta And Spotify Blast EU Decisions On AI
A group of companies including Meta and Spotify blasted the European Union Thursday for its "fragmented and inconsistent" decision-making on data privacy and artificial intelligence (AI). The firms along with several researchers and industry bodies signed an open letter claiming that Europe was already becoming less competitive and risked falling further behind in the age of AI. The signatories called for "harmonised, consistent, quick and clear decisions" from data privacy regulators to "enable European data to be used in AI training for the benefit of Europeans". The letter takes issue with recent decisions under the 2018 general data protection regulation (GDPR). Meta, which owns Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, recently halted plans to harvest data from European users to train its AI models after pressure from privacy regulators. "In recent times, regulatory decision making has become fragmented and unpredictable, while interventions by the European Data Protection Authorities have created huge uncertainty about what kinds of data can be used to train AI models," said the letter. A European Commission spokesperson said at the time that all companies in the EU were expected to abide by data privacy rules. Meta has faced record fines for breaching the privacy of users, including a single penalty of more than one billion euros under GDPR. As well as data privacy rules, Europe became the first regional bloc to frame major legislation aiming to stop abuses of the technology -- its AI Act coming into force earlier this year. Meta and other tech giants have increasingly delayed products for the European market, claiming they were seeking legal clarity. Meta delayed the EU-wide release of its Twitter alternative Threads by several months last year. Google has similarly held back the release of AI tools in the EU.
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Spotify, Meta and others blast EU's decision-making on AI and data privacy
The firms along with several researchers and industry bodies signed an open letter claiming that Europe was already becoming less competitive and risked falling further behind in the age of AI. The signatories called for "harmonised, consistent, quick and clear decisions" from data privacy regulators to "enable European data to be used in AI training for the benefit of Europeans". The letter takes issue with recent decisions under the 2018 general data protection regulation (GDPR). Meta, which owns Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, recently halted plans to harvest data from European users to train its AI models after pressure from privacy regulators. "In recent times, regulatory decision making has become fragmented and unpredictable, while interventions by the European Data Protection Authorities have created huge uncertainty about what kinds of data can be used to train AI models," said the letter. A European Commission spokesperson said at the time that all companies in the EU were expected to abide by data privacy rules. Meta has faced record fines for breaching the privacy of users, including a single penalty of more than one billion euros under GDPR. As well as data privacy rules, Europe became the first regional bloc to frame major legislation aiming to stop abuses of the technology -- its AI Act coming into force earlier this year. Meta and other tech giants have increasingly delayed products for the European market, claiming they were seeking legal clarity. Meta delayed the EU-wide release of its Twitter alternative Threads by several months last year. Google has similarly held back the release of AI tools in the EU.
[4]
Meta, Spotify blast EU decisions on AI
PARIS (AFP) - A group of companies including Meta and Spotify blasted the European Union (EU) on Thursday for its "fragmented and inconsistent" decision-making on data privacy and artificial intelligence (AI). The firms along with several researchers and industry bodies signed an open letter claiming that Europe was already becoming less competitive and risked falling further behind in the age of AI. The signatories called for "harmonised, consistent, quick and clear decisions" from data privacy regulators to "enable European data to be used in AI training for the benefit of Europeans". The letter takes issue with recent decisions under the 2018 general data protection regulation (GDPR). Meta, which owns Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, recently halted plans to harvest data from European users to train its AI models after pressure from privacy regulators. "In recent times, regulatory decision making has become fragmented and unpredictable, while interventions by the European Data Protection Authorities have created huge uncertainty about what kinds of data can be used to train AI models," said the letter. A European Commission spokesperson said at the time that all companies in the EU were expected to abide by data privacy rules. Meta has faced record fines for breaching the privacy of users, including a single penalty of more than EUR1 billion under GDPR. As well as data privacy rules, Europe became the first regional bloc to frame major legislation aiming to stop abuses of the technology - its AI Act coming into force earlier this year. Meta and other tech giants have increasingly delayed products for the European market, claiming they were seeking legal clarity. Meta delayed the EU-wide release of its Twitter alternative Threads by several months last year.
[5]
Meta and Spotify blast EU decisions on AI
This picture taken on April 27, 2023, in Toulouse, southwestern France, shows a screen displaying the Meta logo and the European flag. -- AFP file A group of companies including Meta and Spotify blasted the European Union Thursday for its "fragmented and inconsistent" decision-making on data privacy and artificial intelligence (AI). The firms along with several researchers and industry bodies signed an open letter claiming that Europe was already becoming less competitive and risked falling further behind in the age of AI. The signatories called for "harmonised, consistent, quick and clear decisions" from data privacy regulators to "enable European data to be used in AI training for the benefit of Europeans". The letter takes issue with recent decisions under the 2018 general data protection regulation (GDPR). Meta, which owns Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, recently halted plans to harvest data from European users to train its AI models after pressure from privacy regulators. "In recent times, regulatory decision making has become fragmented and unpredictable, while interventions by the European Data Protection Authorities have created huge uncertainty about what kinds of data can be used to train AI models," said the letter. A European Commission spokesperson said at the time that all companies in the EU were expected to abide by data privacy rules. Meta has faced record fines for breaching the privacy of users, including a single penalty of more than one billion euros under GDPR. As well as data privacy rules, Europe became the first regional bloc to frame major legislation aiming to stop abuses of the technology -- its AI Act coming into force earlier this year. Meta and other tech giants have increasingly delayed products for the European market, claiming they were seeking legal clarity. Meta delayed the EU-wide release of its Twitter alternative Threads by several months last year.
[6]
Mark Zuckerberg says Europe needs more consistent AI regulation -- and even his privacy nemesis agrees
Leading technology executives, including Meta's Mark Zuckerberg, Spotify's Daniel Ek, and Stripe's Patrick Collison, have written an open letter slamming Europe for its "fragmented and inconsistent" regulation of data privacy and artificial intelligence. The block will "miss out" on the benefits of AI unless it regulates the sector more consistently, a wide-ranging group of CEOs and researchers wrote in the letter published Thursday. It called for decisions from data privacy regulators across the EU to be faster, clearer, and more harmonized "to enable European data to be used in AI training for the benefit of Europeans." Leaders of European industrial titans like the German steel producer Thyssenkrupp and Italian tire-maker Pirelli also signed the letter. The letter highlights the plight of companies that are developing open-source AI models, along with the data-processing restrictions that Meta says are stopping it from rolling out AI applications in the region. The letter echoes arguments that Zuckenberg and Ek made in an op-ed in the Economist last month. The latest missive is likely to add to an on-going debate about Europe's sluggish economic growth and poor productivity that has grown to a fever pitch in the past few weeks following the publication of a major report into European competitiveness, written by Mario Draghi, former European Central Bank president. Draghi said the AI revolution gave Europe a chance to "redress its failings in innovation and productivity and to restore its manufacturing potential." Draghi recommended that EU companies pool their data for open-source model training, but warned that limitations on data storage and processing stand in the way. Meta's difficulty in rolling out its AI assistant in Europe makes for a useful case study here. Like many companies these days, Meta has been exploiting its users' publicly posted data (as opposed to private posts and messages) to train its AI models. It paused that practice in the EU and U.K. in June, following complaints privacy activists made to European data protection authorities. Those activists say that, under the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Meta doesn't have a secure legal basis for using Europeans' data to train AI models. (The U.K. still uses an almost identical copy of the GDPR, even after Brexit.) They also claim that Meta is flouting the GDPR's restrictions on "purpose limitation" -- essentially, that it can't repurpose Facebook and Instagram users' data for AI training because that's not what those users signed up for years ago. Meta last week resumed its U.K. AI rollout after assuring that country's regulator that it would make it easier for users to opt out of their data being used as training fodder, but it still hasn't received full U.K. approval for its training -- the watchdog continues to watch. And in Europe, the pause seems set to continue indefinitely. Meta isn't the only company that's had to stop training its models on Europeans' personal data, to comply with data-protection law. Elon Musk's X has done the same and Microsoft's LinkedIn isn't even trying to train its models on European users' data, though those companies have decided to keep offering their AI in Europe nonetheless. Meta's stance is that, if its models can't be trained to understand Europe-specific idioms, knowledge and culture, the deployment isn't worth it. Meta says the inconsistency it is facing comes in two forms. First, the company says that different European data protection authorities have issued conflicting guidance about the use of personal data for AI training. On this, even Meta's arch privacy nemesis agrees. "They are absolutely right that there are conflicting views from the DPAs," said Max Schrems, the Austrian activist lawyer whose anti-Meta privacy crusade has given the company numerous nightmares over the last decade, and whose NGO issued the complaints that led to Meta's European AI pause. "There are also guidelines by the DPAs that just structurally don't understand how LLMs work...so the criticism is somewhat legitimate." But Meta also claims that it's been picked on unfairly, as many other companies have also been using public internet data to train their models. "AI training is not unique to our services, and we're more transparent than many of our industry counterparts," Meta griped in June, when its rollout plans hit the buffers. For some of the other signatories of Wednesday's open letter, the issue seems to be more about perceived threats to Europe's overall competitiveness than risks to their specific operations. For example, one of the signing CEOs was Ericsson's Börje Ekholm. The Swedish networking equipment manufacturer declined to give any comments to Fortune about problems that Ericsson itself is experiencing, due to the way AI is currently regulated. Instead, Ericsson pointed to a LinkedIn post by Ekholm, warning that "the U.S, China and India are sprinting ahead to embrace AI innovation while Europe lags behind in the dust, barely at crawling pace."
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Meta to European Union: Your tech rules threaten to squelch AI boom
In an open letter that was coordinated by Meta, executives from more than two dozen companies said AI can boost productivity and expand the economy, but Europe might reap fewer rewards than other jurisdictions. "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 said. The letter calls on the EU to harmonize its rules and provide what the signatories refer to as a modern interpretation of the bloc's data-protection law. Other signatories include representatives from Swedish telecommunications-equipment company Ericsson, German software company SAP and German industrial group Thyssenkrupp, along with researchers and civil-society and trade groups. The letter comes after Meta and Apple said new AI features they are rolling out elsewhere won't initially be available in Europe because of the bloc's regulations. Apple said in June that it likely wouldn't introduce its new AI system, called Apple Intelligence, for European iPhone users this year because of what it said were uncertainties caused by a new digital-competition law. Requirements that large tech companies make it easier for rival services to work on their operating systems "could force us to compromise the integrity of our products in ways that risk user privacy and data security," Apple said at the time. Meta said separately in July that it wouldn't release a future multimodal AI model in the EU in the near term because of what it referred to as "the unpredictable nature of the European regulatory environment." The company had previously said it would delay a plan to train its AI models using data from adults' public posts on Facebook and Instagram in Europe after Ireland's data-protection authority raised concerns. The European Commission, the bloc's executive body, has said that all companies are welcome to offer their services in Europe if they comply with the bloc's laws. The EU has developed a reputation as a leading global regulator whose rules often have a sweeping global impact. The bloc's General Data Protection Regulation, which aims to safeguard personal data, rippled globally and became a template for some countries. More recent EU legislation dealing with digital competition, online content and AI has since been introduced, prompting some of the world's biggest tech companies to change how they operate in the bloc. Lawmakers and officials say the EU's regulations are crucial to challenging monopolistic behavior by large tech companies, curbing the spread of disinformation and abusive online material and protecting children online. But the rules have also prompted complaints from some companies and industry groups, which say they are cumbersome to implement and put Europe at a disadvantage. It isn't unusual for companies to stagger the rollout of new products and features in regions outside the U.S. The Google AI chatbot Bard, since renamed Gemini, expanded into the bloc months after its initial launch in the U.S. and U.K. Bard's release in Europe was delayed, in part, by a request from Ireland's data-protection authority for additional privacy features. Meta last year released its Threads social-media platform in the EU, months after it first rolled out in the U.S. The EU, with some 450 million consumers, is among the world's largest and wealthiest markets, making it an important source of revenue for large tech companies. The letter published Thursday said that EU regulations could mean European organizations have worse access to open AI models, which can be downloaded and adjusted. The bloc might also miss out on newer models that can combine text, images and speech, the letter said. The letter singled out what it said was an inconsistent application of the bloc's data-protection regulations, which it said creates uncertainty over the kinds of data that can be used to train AI models. "If companies and institutions are going to invest tens of billions of euros to build Generative AI for European citizens, they require clear rules, consistently applied, enabling the use of European data," the letter said.
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Meta's Mark Zuckerberg and Spotify's Daniel Ek, along with other tech CEOs, are urging the European Union to reconsider its data privacy regulations for AI development. They argue that current rules hinder innovation and competitiveness in the AI sector.
In a bold move, prominent tech industry leaders, including Meta's Mark Zuckerberg and Spotify's Daniel Ek, have publicly challenged the European Union's stance on data privacy rules for artificial intelligence (AI) development. The CEOs argue that the current regulations are stifling innovation and putting European companies at a significant disadvantage in the global AI race 1.
The tech giants express serious concerns about the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and its impact on AI development. They claim that these stringent rules are hampering their ability to train large language models effectively, which are crucial for advancing AI technology. This limitation, they argue, puts European companies at a competitive disadvantage compared to their counterparts in other regions, particularly the United States and China 2.
In their appeal to EU policymakers, the CEOs are advocating for changes that would allow for more flexible use of publicly available data in AI training. They emphasize the need for a balanced approach that protects individual privacy while also fostering innovation in the AI sector. The tech leaders suggest that without these changes, Europe risks falling behind in the global AI race 3.
The current EU regulations require companies to obtain explicit consent from individuals before using their data for AI training purposes. This requirement, according to the tech CEOs, creates significant obstacles in developing large-scale AI models. They argue that this approach is impractical and hinders the rapid advancement of AI technology that could benefit various sectors of the economy 4.
While the EU has positioned itself as a leader in tech regulation with initiatives like the GDPR and the upcoming AI Act, tech companies warn that overly restrictive policies could lead to unintended consequences. They caution that stringent regulations might drive AI development and its associated economic benefits away from Europe, potentially causing a "brain drain" of AI talent and innovation 5.
The debate highlights the ongoing challenge of balancing data privacy concerns with the need for technological advancement. As AI continues to play an increasingly significant role in various industries, finding the right regulatory framework that protects individual rights while fostering innovation remains a critical challenge for policymakers and tech leaders alike.
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CEOs of Meta and Spotify criticize proposed EU AI regulations, warning of potential negative impacts on innovation and competitiveness. The debate highlights the tension between regulation and technological advancement in the AI sector.
9 Sources
Meta Platforms has announced a delay in launching its latest AI models in the European Union, citing concerns over unclear regulations. This decision highlights the growing tension between technological innovation and regulatory compliance in the AI sector.
13 Sources
The European Union is pressuring Meta to address concerns over its new privacy policy that offers users a choice between paying for ad-free services or consenting to data collection for targeted advertising.
5 Sources
Major tech companies, including Meta and Google, are reportedly withholding certain AI products from the European Union due to regulatory uncertainties. This move highlights the growing tension between rapid AI development and regulatory compliance.
2 Sources
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg criticizes Apple's closed ecosystem and promotes open-source AI development. He outlines Meta's AI strategy and the benefits of a more open approach in tech innovation.
11 Sources