Meta and Spotify Criticize EU’s New AI Regulations
Meta and other tech companies chastised the EU for its inconsistent AI and data privacy decisions, warning that it could harm Europe’s competitiveness and advocating for harmonized regulations.
A group of companies, including Meta and Spotify, criticized the EU on Thursday for making decisions that are “fragmented and inconsistent” regarding AI and data privacy. They and some researchers and business groups wrote an open letter saying that Europe was already losing its edge in the AI age and could fall even further behind.
The petition’s signatories urged data privacy regulators to make “harmonized, consistent, quick, and clear decisions” to enable the use of European data in AI training for the benefit of Europeans. The letter doesn’t agree with recent decisions made under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) of 2018.
Meta owns Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram. After privacy regulators put pressure on Meta, it dropped plans to gather data from European users to train its AI models.
“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,” the letter said. At the time, a spokesman for the European Commission said that all businesses in the EU should follow the rules about data privacy.
Meta Fined Over €1 Billion for GDPR Violations
Meta was fined a record-breaking amount for violating people’s privacy. Under GDPR, one fine was more than one billion euros. Along with data privacy rules, Europe was the first region to pass major laws to stop people from abusing technology. The AI Act went into effect earlier this year.
Meta and other big tech companies have been putting off putting products on the market in Europe for longer and longer periods, saying they were waiting for the law to become clear. Last year, Meta delayed the release of its Twitter alternative Threads for the entire EU by a few months. Google has also put off putting AI tools out in the EU.
