The European Commission is finalizing plans to make artificial intelligence (AI) more palatable to companies, as they attempt to combat the effects of U.S. tariffs that have reverberated worldwide.
The EU executive is planning to launch a new “AI Continent” plan. According to an undated draft of the plan obtained by Politico, the executive wants to “streamline” rules and get rid of “obstacles” that it believes are slowing companies in Europe down in competing with the U.S. and China. This strategy aims to deal with concerns expressed by Big Tech companies, which fiercely lobbied against the EU’s AI Act and other pieces of digital legislation.
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Violations of the European Union’s AI Act can result in fines of up to 7% of global revenue or €35 million (almost $37 million), whichever is greater.
“These are American companies whether you like it or not,” President Donald Trump told the crowd at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January, characterizing the E.U.’s regulatory approach as “a form of taxation.”
Former Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi addressed the concerns of the tech industry in his report on competitiveness in Europe and were included in the key priorities of Ursula von der Leyen’s second term as Commission president. The Commission’s tech czar Henna Virkkunen told a global AI conference in Paris in early February that the EU’s regulatory framework should be more “innovation-friendly.”
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OpenAI’s Vice President for Global Affairs Chris Lehane told Politico in an interview last week that Brussels needs to keep its rules “simple and predictable.” Lehane is in Brussels this week to meet with EU policymakers. He also claims to have seen “a shift in mindset of how people are thinking about AI and the opportunity” at the summit in Paris in February. According to the latest data, only 13% of European companies have adopted AI.
OpenAI on Monday issued recommendations called the “EU’s economic blueprint” targeted at EU policymakers. The EU’s executive in its plan on Wednesday also asked tech industries to “identify where regulatory uncertainty creates obstacles” to developing and deploying AI.