Over 40 European companies ask EU to block AI Act

The chief executives of 44 major European companies, including Airbus and BNP Paribas, are urging Brussels to block the AI ​​Act as the EU considers watering down key elements of the law, which is due to come into force in August. The request comes in an open letter to EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, reported by the Financial Times, warning that unclear and overlapping regulations are threatening the bloc's competitiveness in the global race for artificial intelligence.

The letter says that the EU's complex rules put "Europe's AI ambitions at risk, as they jeopardize not only the development of European champions, but also the ability of all industries to use AI at the scale required by global competition."

The EU has already faced intense pressure from the US government, Big Tech and European groups over its AI law, considered the world’s toughest regime regulating the development of the rapidly evolving technology.

The latest lobbying effort comes as Brussels held a meeting with major US tech groups on Wednesday to discuss a new, watered-down draft of the law. The ongoing debate is over the drafting of a “code of conduct,” which will provide guidance to AI companies on how to implement the law, which applies to powerful models such as Google’s Gemini, Meta’s Llama and OpenAI’s GPT-4.