Google has agreed to sign the EU's AI Code of Practise, a document that outlines guidelines for the use of AI in EU regions going forward. This code has not yet been fully finalised, but largely it focused on three main principles regarding transparency, copyright, and safety and security.
Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, turned down the opportunity to sign the code, as it believes that Europe is going down the wrong path when it comes to AI. "We have carefully reviewed the European Commission's Code of Practice for general-purpose AI (GPAI) models and Meta won't be signing it. This Code introduces a number of legal uncertainties for model developers, as well as measures which go far beyond the scope of the AI Act," said Meta's Joel Kaplan.
Google, on the other hand, has agreed to sign the document, though there are some concerns with copyright law which could slow down the progress of generative AI. "We remain concerned that the AI Act and Code risk slowing Europe's development and deployment of AI. In particular, departures from EU copyright law, steps that slow approvals, or requirements that expose trade secrets could chill European model development and deployment, harming Europe's competitiveness," reads a statement from Google.
Since the inception of generative AI, large companies like Google and Meta have been cherry-picking content from wherever they please to train models with no care for copyright law. The EU is notably tighter on its copyright law than other regions, and therefore this could limit Google and Meta's models to content owned by those two companies, for example.
This isn't going to be a popular policy with large AI model producers, as they'll want to show off the latest steps their learning machines have made and won't be able to make big strides if they can't steal other people's IP and copyrighted content.