European companies urge EU to delay AI rules

Dozens of Europe's biggest companies urged the EU to hit the pause button on its landmark AI rules on Thursday, warning that going too fast could harm the bloc's ability to lead in the global AI race.

The European Union's sweeping rules on artificial intelligence entered into force last year but the bloc has since pivoted to strengthening its industries in the face of fierce competition from China and the United States.

The new US administration under President Donald Trump has also taken aim at the rules. Vice President JD Vance in February lambasted the EU over "excessive" regulation.

Now, 46 top executives including from France's Airbus and Mistral, Dutch tech giant ASML and Germany's Lufthansa and Mercedes-Benz are calling on Brussels to reassess the rules.

They accused the EU's complex regulation of putting "Europe's AI ambitions at risk, as it jeopardises not only the development of European champions, but also the ability of all industries to deploy AI at the scale required by global competition".

The CEOs urged the European Commission to propose a two-year pause and for "further simplification of the new rules" for which a code of practice has yet to be released.

The pause, the CEOs said, should apply to obligations on general-purpose AI models -- like OpenAI's ChatGPT -- and high-risk AI systems that were due to take effect in August 2025 and August 2026 respectively.

The EU's law takes a risk-based approach to the technology.

The higher the risk to Europeans' rights or health, for example, the greater the systems' obligations to protect individuals from harm.

The EU has been working on the long-delayed code to provide guidance on how the rules should apply to general-purpose AI models, including Google's Gemini and Mistral's Le Chat.

There are expectations that the code will be watered down and the commission has said it will be published before the rules on GPAI models kick in next month.

AFP has a deal with Mistral allowing its chatbot to draw on the agency's articles to formulate responses.