Major Tech CEOs Demand Europe Hit Pause on AI Act—Will Brussels Cave?
Europe's AI legislation faces a corporate mutiny. Top CEOs from Silicon Valley to Berlin are mounting pressure to stall the landmark AI Act, calling it 'innovation-crippling overreach.'
Who's pulling the strings? The usual suspects—Big Tech's lobbying machine revs into high gear as compliance costs threaten their bottom lines. Because nothing inspires regulatory flexibility like billion-dollar profit margins at stake.
The Brussels showdown escalates. With enforcement deadlines looming, backroom negotiations intensify. Will EU bureaucrats hold firm, or fold faster than a crypto startup's 'stable' coin?
EU AI Champions urge commitment to simpler, competitive rules
The letter was organized by the European AI Champions Initiative, a coalition of 110 companies across various sectors. It said a two-year pause would send “innovators and investors around the world a strong signal that Europe is serious about its simplification and competitiveness agenda.”
Start-up founders and their investors have voiced similar concerns.
In a separate letter this week, over 30 start-ups chiefs in the EU warned that the legislation was “a rushed ticking time bomb.” They fear that unclear rules on general-purpose models could lead to a patchwork of national regulations, giving well-funded US tech giants an edge over smaller local firms.
Many established businesses share the worry that any company using LLMs in its own systems would face the same regulations as the biggest tech groups, especially in sensitive areas including liability of copyrights. Some say the lack of clarity on how member states will apply the rules may deter firms from rolling out AI tools, causing them losses against rivals in North America and Asia.
The EU Commission stressed that it remains “fully committed to the main goals of the AI Act, which include establishing harmonized risk-based rules across the EU and ensuring the safety of AI systems on the European market.”
It added that it is simplifying its digital rulebook broadly, so that it can consider all options in the current state.
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