Some 26 tech companies sign up to EU Commission's AI Code

Some 26 companies were among the first to sign up to the AI Code of Practice on General-Purpose (GPAI), the European Commission said in a statement on Friday.

The Code, which the Commission released earlier this month, is a voluntary set of rules that touches on transparency, copyright, and safety and security issues, aiming to help providers of GPAI models comply with the AI Act.

The signatories include big tech giants such as Amazon, Google, Microsoft and IBM. Also on the list are AI providers such as Open AI, France’s Mistral AI, and German start-up Aleph Alpha.

Meta previously announced that it would not sign up, claiming that the Code restricts innovation, and that “Europe is heading down the wrong path on AI”.  

Meta will still need to comply with AI Act obligations that start applying on 2 August. 

The developer of X’s Grok, xAI, only signed up to the Code’s Safety and Security Chapter; meaning that it will have to demonstrate compliance with the AI Act’s obligations concerning transparency and copyright via alternative means, the Commission said. 

Google said earlier this week that it will sign, but expressed concerns about the bloc’s AI rules regarding innovation.  

“While the final version of the Code comes closer to supporting Europe’s innovation and economic goals [...] we remain concerned that the AI Act and Code risk slowing down Europe’s development and deployment of AI,” the president of global affairs at Google’s parent company Alphabet, Kent Walker, said in a blogpost on Wednesday. 

Providers that already have a GPAI model on the market needed to sign before 1 August, whereas others can sign up later, the Commission previously said. 

From Saturday, the 27 EU member states should have appointed national oversight authorities to ensure that businesses in their countries comply with the AI Act. In case of breaches, fines for GPAI tools could be as high as €15 million or 3% of a company's annual turnover, whichever is higher.