Zuckerberg, Altman offer support for EU regulation of AI

BLOOMBERG 

Technology company executives Mark Zuckerberg and Sam Altman expressed support for government oversight of
artificial intelligence (AI) after discussions with European Commissioner Thierry Breton. The commissioner said that he and Zuckerberg, chief executive officer of Meta Platforms Inc, were “aligned” on the EU’s regulation of artificial intelligence, which is now in final negotiations. They agreed on the bloc’s risk-based approach and to measures like watermarking, Breton said.
Altman, CEO of OpenAI, said he, too, agrees with the EU approach on AI, adding “I really appreciate the European institution here, and the foresight on taking this issue so seriously, for the rest of the world, too.” “We look forward to working with you to be running well in advance and offering a European service in compliance with the European market,” Altman told Breton. OpenAI developed the popular chatbot ChatGPT, which has created intense interest in the possibilities of generative AI.
Nick Clegg, Meta’s president of global affairs, said his company “shared our support for the objectives of the AI Pact. While we need to study the details, we recognise its important for tech companies to be open about the work they’re doing on AI and engage collaboratively across industry, governments and civil society.”
The discussions were part of Breton’s tour this week of technology companies.
After his visit to Meta, Breton said the owner of Facebook and Instagram appears well-prepared to meet Europe’s new strict content moderation rules, but will submit to a stress test of its systems next month.
Meta presented “a lot of information” about its work to comply with the European Union’s Digital Services Act, but were also happy to take a stress test “not to forget anything,” he said.
Zuckerberg agreed to a test in mid-July to assess how the company handles content moderation rules.
Meta’s CEO was interested in a future test of how the company’s platforms will handle upcoming competition rules
set out by the EU’s Digital Markets Act. Clegg, in a tweet, called it a “constructive” conversation. “We’ve invited his team to our Dublin campus to see how we’re stress testing our processes ahead of implementation,” he said.