Dozens of CEOs have called on the European Commission to pause the EU AI Act. Several restrictions were set to take effect in August, but there is now a push to stop them. There is a good chance that this will happen.
In an open letter, the CEOs are asking for a two-year “clock stop,” essentially a pause, to iron out any potential problems with the law. To make a stand in the AI battle, the leaders of European tech companies want to ensure that “unclear, overlapping, and increasingly complex EU regulations” do not get in the way. They are spreading their message across all kinds of digital domains using the hashtag #stoptheclock.
From tech to textiles
The CEOs’ appeal comes from various quarters. Tech players such as ASML and Mistral, aircraft manufacturer Airbus, Siemens Energy, and supermarket chain Carrefour are all on the list. They are joined by smaller AI players such as voice specialist ElevenLabs and biotech startup Cradle.
Finnish European Commissioner Henna Virkkunen has said that she will decide whether the AI Act should be postponed. If some standards and guidelines are not ready, she is prepared to temporarily set aside parts of the law. So there is certainly a chance that the call will be heard in Brussels. The chorus of CEOs has already been supported from North America: both Washington and the major US tech players have been arguing for years for a free interpretation of AI legislation to allow maximum innovation and room for maneuver.
In extremis
The desire to limit AI innovation as little as possible already met with opposition in 2023. The most obvious example was the adoption of the EU AI Act in question. However, we immediately think back to another open letter that suggested the exact opposite of the CEOs’ message today. In March 2023, a collective of well-known names demanded a six-month pause in the construction of AI systems that were more advanced than ChatGPT at the time. At the time, the most powerful model was GPT-4, in a significantly less capable form than today’s GPT-4o and even less powerful than o1 and now o3 from OpenAI, not to mention the competition.
Despite the fact that Elon Musk and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, among others, backed this call, it was not heeded. The rest is history: GenAI has evolved from somewhat shapeless hype to a more concrete image of AI agents and “reasoning” models. Nevertheless, there is a strong sense of incompleteness; the ‘killer app’ for AI beyond ChatGPT has not yet arrived. European CEOs do not want to limit this search, with very understandable motives that could also have positive consequences for Europe.
In fact, the EU AI Act is separate from the good intentions behind it. Think of protecting copyright, limiting risky implementations, and demanding transparency. These issues are currently insufficiently regulated within AI development. It is not so much that the current rules are too restrictive or liberal, but simply that they are outdated. The EU AI Act was supposed to solve this, but ironically, it has itself become outdated due to outdated terminology and a restrictive attitude.
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