Representatives of the major digital platforms have issued a number of statements in recent days on how Europe should approach the digital sector. Google, Facebook and the CCIA, the international lobbying organisation, have all been invited to be involved in the reforms planned by the new von der Leyen European Commission.
Google and CCIA on artificial intelligence
Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google and its parent company Alphabet, expressed his views about artificial intelligence in particular, in the knowledge that the European Commission intends to present its vision for “a European approach to artificial intelligence” on 19 February (see EUROPE 12403/29). In a meeting with Vice Presidents Frans Timmermans and Margrethe Vestager, Pichai called for AI to be regulated in a “proportionate” manner. He also supported the idea of a moratorium on facial recognition, pointing out that Google did not provide this kind of technology because of its harmful impact.
Our readers will recall that the draft White Paper on Artificial Intelligence, published in December and previously described in our articles, leaves open the idea of a moratorium of this kind - for between 3 and 5 years - while stressing that this is not the preferred option at this stage (see EUROPE 12406/8).
The CCIA sent a letter to Commissioners Breton (Internal Market), Vestager (Competition) and Reynders (Justice) on 20 January expressing their opposition to horizontal regulation on artificial intelligence. Instead, it recommends targeted regulatory intervention, involving stakeholders and taking into account the thinking in the rest of the world.
Facebook on a European champion
The next day, it was the turn of Nick Clegg, Facebook's vice-president for global affairs, to set out his vision for European digital policy. On 21 January, at the Luiss Guido Carli University in Rome (Italy), he called for smart regulation. “I'm not here on behalf of Facebook to resist regulation. Quite the opposite, in fact”, he said, noting that last spring Mark Zuckerberg had called for EU action on harmful content, electoral integrity, data privacy and portability.
He suggested that Europe will enable a digital giant to emerge on its territory once it creates the conditions required to develop the technology. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)