Tech lobby group urges EU leaders to pause AI Act

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STOCKHOLM (Reuters) -Tech lobbying group CCIA Europe, whose members include Alphabet, Meta and Apple, on Thursday urged European Union to pause implementation of the AI Act, saying a rushed roll-out risks jeopardizing the continent’s AI aspirations.

Europe’s landmark AI rules entered into force in June last year with various provisions to be implemented in a phased manner.

Important provisions of the EU AI Act, including rules for general purpose AI (GPAI) models, were due to apply on August 2. But some parts of the GPAI, which were expected to be published on May 2, got delayed.

“With critical parts of the AI Act still missing just weeks before rules kick in, we need a pause to get the Act right, or risk stalling innovation altogether,” said Daniel Friedlaender, CCIA Europe’s senior vice president.

Political leaders such as Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson have also called AI rules “confusing” and asked the EU to pause the Act, ahead of a meeting with other EU leaders in Brussels on Thursday.

More than two-thirds of European businesses said they struggle to understand their responsibilities under the EU AI Act, according to a survey by Amazon Web Services.

The EU AI Act is more comprehensive than the United States’ light-touch voluntary compliance approach while China’s approach aims to maintain social stability and state control.

“We are currently implementing the AI Act,” EU tech chief Henna Virkkunen told EU lawmakers earlier this month when asked if she would consider a temporary halt to enforcing the AI Act.

“I want to implement it in a very innovation friendly manner … the main concern among some stakeholders is that this is hindering innovations.”

(Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee in Stockholm and Foo Yun Chee in Brussels; editing by Philippa Fletcher)