Thursday’s deal leaves some lawmakers and lobby groups dissatisfied.
AI generated Text-to-speech
BRUSSELS — The EU should have gone further in cutting rules for artificial intelligence under a deal struck Thursday, some lawmakers and industry lobby groups said.
The reaction from liberal and centrist politicians suggests a strong appetite for further changes to the bloc’s digital laws — satisfying demand from both industry and the U.S. government for further deregulation.
The deal agreed by EU legislators on Thursday morning includes plans to delay rules on high-risk uses of AI as part of an effort by Brussels to simplify its laws. The deal fell short of a bid by the European Parliament’s center-right groups to exempt product areas including medical devices and radio equipment from the EU’s AI law.
Only machinery will be exempt after a successful last-ditch effort by Germany to secure a lighter regulatory regime for industrial AI applications.
Dutch liberal lawmaker Bart Groothuis expressed skepticism about the deal at POLITICO’s AI & Tech Week and said he still had to look into whether to vote in favor when it is put to the European Parliament for formal approval.
“We need to deregulate much, much faster than we are doing now,” Groothuis told POLITICO.
Groothuis said European AI companies tell him they can’t build a European model capable of challenging industry leaders such as ChatGPT under the current legislation, and that the deal agreed Thursday will not change that.
Center-right lawmakers who were in the negotiating room also said they wanted more: “I’m not that happy that the member states were not [as] ambitious as we were,” Swedish conservative lawmaker Arba Kokalari told reporters Thursday, referring to the fact that EU countries had only greenlit an exemption for machinery and not for other sectors.
German liberal European Parliament lawmaker Svenja Hahn blamed EU countries’ lack of ambition. “We wanted this solution for more sectors to boost AI made in Europe even more, but that was unfortunately not possible with the member states,” she said in a statement shared by the liberal Renew group.
The tech industry has also expressed discontent that the effort to simplify the EU’s AI rules is not bringing relief for companies.
Tech lobby group CCIA, which represents companies including Meta, Google and Apple, slammed the deal, saying it missed “a clear opportunity to deliver genuine simplification.”
“The glaring gap between political rhetoric on regulatory simplification and concrete outcomes is hard to ignore,” said CCIA Europe’s AI policy lead Boniface de Champris.
“If the European Union wants to be serious about simplification, it needs to do more and better,” said Hadrien Valembois, policy director at the Business Software Alliance, which represents companies like Zoom, IBM and SAP.
Center-left politicians said they are ready to resist the push. “Industry exemptions will not prevail over our safety. AI should always be safe and not discriminate or pose a danger to fundamental rights,” said Dutch Greens lawmaker Kim van Sparrentak.
Some in the U.S. still see value in working with European tech talent, Ekaterina Zaharieva says.
Deal marks first significant delay of digital rules amid pressure from the U.S.
Exemption for industry would mark a dramatic departure from law’s initial setup.
Officials are losing patience over lack of access to superhacking model.
About the Author
