Meta have decided not to sign the EU’s new AI safety pact, even as they continue to debate regulatory altercation with Apple, which is EU regulators.
A voluntary project called the EU AI Pact aspires to promise the expansion of artificial intelligence (AI) systems that are reliable and safe.
More than 100 companies are supporting the agreement, which includes corporate behemoths like Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI, the company that created ChatGPT.
Still, a number of other big names have declined to sign Ai safety pact, including TikTok and the AI company Anthropic.
To identify high-risk AI systems, to increase public awareness of AI concerns, and also to implement governance techniques to control the development of AI are the three main objects of the agreement.
Having recently put the AI Act into action, the European Union is leading the way in setting up the international legal guidelines for AI.
The first of its kind, this all-inclusive regulatory framework, strives to dominate businesses that are creating artificial intelligence (AI) technology while diminishing the risks to health, safety, and basic rights that these technologies may provide.
In spite of all this, it is thought that Apple and Meta’s unwillingness to sign the pact is a result of a massive dispute between the businesses and EU regulators.
This year, specifically Meta has had to deal with legal matters. One of the issues was a directive from the Irish Data Protection Commission. This matter made the business cease the introduction of its AI assistant in Europe.
The main point of contention was how Meta trained its AI models for Facebook, Instagram, and other platforms using user data.
Meta responded to the AI Act by saying it wasn’t ready to sign the AI Pact just yet, but it would be happy to follow the new rules.
A representative from Meta said: “We welcome harmonized EU regulations and are focused on complying with the AI Act, but we do not rule out joining the AI Pact later.”
The business also made a point of how AI has the power to stimulate competitiveness and innovation inside Europe, admonishing that it may lose out on important prospects if the EU only fixates on risk reduction and fails to promote the benefits of AI research.
Apple, on the other hand, has apparently prioritized compliance with the EU’s AI Act, though it has not spoken significantly on its decision to not sign the deal.
The unwillingness of both businesses to take part highlights the ongoing conflict between European regulators and big tech corporations over how to strike a balance between the revolutionary potential of AI and the requirement for strict safety precautions.
In a related event, it was reported by The Wall Street Journal earlier this year that Apple and Meta have looked into possible joint ventures in the AI field.
It was said that Meta, Facebook’s parent firm, talked about incorporating its generative AI model into Apple’s recently revealed AI system for iPhones.
The AI startups Perplexity and Anthropic, who aimed to apply their AI skills to Apple’s developing platform, are also included in the talk.
Even if no contracts were signed, these partnerships may have aided AI companies through Apple’s ecosystem in enlarging the reach of their products.
A Meta spokesperson said, “We welcome harmonized EU rules and are focusing on our compliance work under the AI Act at this time, but we don’t rule out our joining the AI Pact at a later stage. We also shouldn’t lose sight of AI’s huge potential to foster European innovation and enable competition, or else the EU will miss out on this once-in-a-generation opportunity.”
These partnerships, according to the article, might have involved AI businesses using Apple Intelligence to present premium memberships to their services.
Fusing third-party AI models into Apple’s ecosystem would have been a crucial stage in the company’s larger AI strategy, which it had publicly announced earlier in the month, even though the financial details of the potential deals were still unclear.
Combining AI into crucial apps like Siri and bringing OpenAI’s ChatGPT to Apple devices was a part of this plan.
