Industry Coalition Urges for Exclusion of General Purpose AI from the EU AI Act
BRUSSELS – Today, global tech trade association the Information Technology Industry Council (opens in a new tab) (ITI), together with 9 other groups, issued a joint statement on the EU Artificial Intelligence Act and High-Risk Obligations for General Purpose AI. The statement urges EU policymakers to reject recent proposals to require all General Purpose AI to comply with the EU AI Act requirements regardless of whether they are used in a high-risk scenario or not. Rather, a balanced allocation of responsibility should ensure that the entities that are best placed to mitigate the risks posed by a specific intended use are enabled to comply with the EU AI Act requirements.
“The AI Act is built on a risk-based approach [which] aims to include well-defined high-risk uses and scenarios in its scope, warranting specific obligations to manage those risks depending on the intended purpose of an AI tool. Including General Purpose AI and tools—which by definition lack an intended purpose and can be applied in a multitude of often low-risk use cases—would directly counter the main objective and structure of the AI Act”, the groups wrote, “At the same time, the AI Act would benefit from more clarity on the allocation of responsibilities between AI developers and deployers by ensuring that compliance obligations are assigned to the entities best placed to mitigate challenges and concerns, and encouraging coordination along the AI value chain.”
The statement highlights potential consequences of including General Purpose AI and tools under the AI Act, which include:
- The overturning of the AI Act’s risk-based approach, inherently subjecting non-high-risk AI to the AI Act, thus regulating a whole technology rather than high-risk uses.
- The enforcement of virtually impossible and retroactive compliance obligations on low-risk AI, which risks imposing significant burdens for providers and developers to continuously monitor AI that is being deployed countless times across very diverse sectors.
- Severely impacting open-source developers in Europe as they will have to comply with the AI Act at all phases of development regardless of market placement and risk definition.
- Undermining AI uptake, innovation, and digital transformation in Europe by having ex-ante obligations at all stages of development.
The statement was signed by ITI, Afnum – The French Alliance of Digital Industries, Allied for Startups, BSA – The Software Alliance, EARE, European Alliance for Research Excellence, Infobalt Lithuania, ISFE – Interactive Software Federation of Europe, SEPE – Federation of Hellenic ICT Enterprises, SPCR – Confederation of Industry of the Czech Republic, and ZPP – the Polish Union of Entrepreneurs and Employers.
Read the full letter here.
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