Is European regulation stifling innovation? Big tech companies have been singing this refrain in recent weeks. “Europe has become less competitive and innovative than other regions and is now at risk of falling even further into the era of artificial intelligence, due to inconsistent regulatory decisions”, This is what thirty digital companies accuse in an open letter published on Thursday 19 September and circulated through a petition as well as advertising pages in major newspapers. At the forefront of this campaign: Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, whose founder, Mark Zuckerberg, had already signed a forum against the regulation at the end of August with Spotify boss Daniel Ek. “too complex and incoherent.”
If not entirely new, this lobbying initiative is accompanied by an even stranger decision: Meta has suspended the launch in the EU of its artificial intelligence (AI) assistant, Meta AI, on its social networks Instagram and Facebook. In its letter, the group urges Brussels to stop “reject progress” (…) and see the rest of the world building technologies that Europeans won’t have access to.”
If Apple has a less offensive communication than Meta and has not signed its open letter, Tim Cook’s company has also suspended until further notice the launch in Europe of its AI assistant, Apple Intelligence, as well as three other functions planned for the iPhone 16. To justify its decision, the group cited the “regulatory uncertainties” generated according to him by the regulation of the European Digital Markets Act (DMA), Certain measures may require you to “compromising the integrity of [ses] products in a way that jeopardizes user privacy and data security.”
Meta is also protesting against a decision by the Irish CNIL which prohibits it, under the General Data Protection Regulation, from training its AI models on content posted on its social networks by its users, without asking for their consent. “This is publicly shared data, not private conversations like messages on Messenger.”, argues Joëlle Pineau, vice president in charge of AI research at Meta. It is important to train AI in European languages and cultures.s “so as not to have only Anglo-Saxon models”, adds the Canadian researcher. Meta finally argues that Brazil or the United Kingdom have given it the green light.
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