According to the open letter, the rules outlined in the proposed AI Act would see generative AI would be "heavily regulated" meaning that companies implementing such technologies would face "disproportionate compliance costs and disproportionate liability risks", adding that the rules could lead to "highly innovative companies moving their activities abroad, investors withdrawing their capital from the development of European Foundation Models and European AI in general".
Instead, the letter states that "European law should confine itself to stating broad principles in a risk-based approach" and that a "dedicated regulatory body composed of experts at EU level" should be created to implement such rules.
Signatories from the wider telecoms and tech space include Altice France, Capgemini Group, Ubisoft, Siemens, Bearing Point France, ARM, Schneider Electric, Orange, Deutsche Telekom, Mistral AI, Celonis and Rakuten France.
Approved last month, the proposed EU AI Act will employ a risk-based approach. Any AI deemed to pose an unacceptable level of risk to people’s safety would be prohibited, this includes those used for social scoring.
The ban also extends to any real-time remote biometric ID systems in public spaces; Post remote biometric ID systems, excluding law enforcement for the prosecution of serious crimes and only after judicial authorisation; biometric systems that use sensitive characteristics such as gender, race, ethnicity etc.
In the case of general-purpose AI, developers of foundation models are required to assess and mitigate possible risks to health, safety, fundamental rights, the environment, democracy and rule of law, as well as register their models in the EU database before their release on the EU market.
As for Generative AI systems, such as those built of ChatGPT will have to comply with transparency requirements, by disclosing that the content was AI-generated, helping distinguish so-called deep-fake images from real ones, and ensure safeguards against generating illegal content.
