With just over a month to go before some of the obligations of the Artificial Intelligence Act, namely those relating to general AI models, come into force, the Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA) Europe, which represents large, mainly American, digital companies (Amazon, Apple, Meta, Google, etc.), called on European leaders on Thursday 26 June to “intervene to temporarily halt the implementation of the Regulation”.
“The digital sector is calling for bold action: postpone the implementation of artificial intelligence (AI) legislation until all the missing elements are in place”, they write.
In their view, a temporary suspension would give “legal certainty to those developing and deploying AI”, finalise the legal basis of the text and ensure European competitiveness in the field, “so long as the necessary standards are not available or delayed”.
According to Boniface de Champris, the association’s senior policy officer, “if the EU really wants to turn its promise of €3.4 trillion linked to AI into reality, it needs to act now [...] to give companies a fair chance to comply and compete”.
The idea of a ‘Stop the Clock’ mechanism is already gaining ground in some Member States, notably Poland, the Czech Republic and Germany.
“If we see that the standards are not ready in time, we must not rule out postponing certain parts of the ‘AI Act’”, said the European Commissioner for Technological Sovereignty, Henna Virkkunen, at the beginning of June (see EUROPE 13655/3). (Original version in French by Isalia Stieffatre)