US companies do not seem to have changed their attitude towards the EU’s Code of Practice on General Purpose AI – which should help providers of AI models comply with the EU’s AI Act – after the change in US administration, an official working in the European Commission’s AI Office told Euronews.
The drafting process of the voluntary Code is still ongoing after the Commission appointed thirteen experts last September, using plenary sessions and workshops to allow some 1,000 participants to share feedback.
The final version was planned for 2 May but has not yet been published.
The official said the deadline was not met because the Commission “received a number of requests to leave the consultations open longer than originally planned.”
The process has been criticised throughout, by Big Tech companies, but also publishers and rightsholders whose main concern is that the rules are a violation of the EU’s Copyright laws.
Criticism
The US government’s Mission to the EU sent a letter to the EU executive pushing back against the Code in April. The administration led by Republican President Donald Trump has been critical of the EU’s digital rules, claiming that it stifles innovation.
Meta’s global policy chief, Joel Kaplan, said in February that it will not sign the code because it had issues with the then latest version. The document has been updated since.
The EU official said that US companies “are very proactive” and that there is not the sense that “they are pulling back because of a change in the administration.”
“I cannot say that the attitude of the companies engaging the code of practice has changed because of the change in the administration. I did not perceive that in the process.”
The plan is still to get the rules out before 2 August, when the rules on GP AI tools – such as large language models like ChatGPT – enter into force.
The AI Act itself – which regulates AI tools according to the risk they pose to society – entered into force in August last year. Its provisions apply gradually, before the Act will be fully applicable in 2027.
The Commission will assess companies’ intentions to sign the code, and carry out an adequacy assessment with the member states. The EU executive wants to know “by August” whether the institutions also accept the code.
The EU executive can then decide to formalise the Code through an implementing act.
Big Tech influence
A report by Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) and LobbyControl published last week suggests that Big Tech companies put pressure on the Commission to water down the Code of Practice, and that they “enjoyed structural advantages” in the drafting process.
In a reaction, the Commission said all participants “had the same opportunity to engage in the process through the same channels.”
The EU official could not say whether it seems likely that companies will sign, but stressed that it’s important that they do.
An alternative option, where businesses commit only to specific parts of the Code, has not been put on the table yet. If that becomes a reality, however, they would need to “fulfil their obligation in a different way,” the official said.
