Space News from SpaceDaily.com
Meta and Spotify blast EU decisions on AI
Paris, Sept 19 (AFP) Sep 19, 2024
A group of companies including Meta and Spotify blasted the European Union Thursday for its "fragmented and inconsistent" decision-making on data privacy and artificial intelligence (AI).

The firms along with several researchers and industry bodies signed an open letter claiming that Europe was already becoming less competitive and risked falling further behind in the age of AI.

The signatories called for "harmonised, consistent, quick and clear decisions" from data privacy regulators to "enable European data to be used in AI training for the benefit of Europeans".

The letter takes issue with recent decisions under the 2018 general data protection regulation (GDPR).

Meta, which owns Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, recently halted plans to harvest data from European users to train its AI models after pressure from privacy regulators.

"In recent times, regulatory decision making has become fragmented and unpredictable, while interventions by the European Data Protection Authorities have created huge uncertainty about what kinds of data can be used to train AI models," said the letter.

A European Commission spokesperson said at the time that all companies in the EU were expected to abide by data privacy rules.

Meta has faced record fines for breaching the privacy of users, including a single penalty of more than one billion euros under GDPR.

As well as data privacy rules, Europe became the first regional bloc to frame major legislation aiming to stop abuses of the technology -- its AI Act coming into force earlier this year.

Meta and other tech giants have increasingly delayed products for the European market, claiming they were seeking legal clarity.

Meta delayed the EU-wide release of its Twitter alternative Threads by several months last year.

Google has similarly held back the release of AI tools in the EU.

jxb/gv

Meta

Publicis Groupe

CRITEO

Spotify

EssilorLuxottica

X


ADVERTISEMENT




Space News from SpaceDaily.com
Space Forge and Intuitive Machines team up to boost US orbital chip production
New Martian rock reveals clues about volcanic history on the Red Planet
Six Chinese universities to launch new low altitude space major this fall

24/7 Energy News Coverage
Tens of millions of tons of nanoplastics detected adrift in North Atlantic
Drone swarm explores turbulent airflows near wind turbines
Robot autonomously completes complex surgery guided by voice and video

Military Space News, Nuclear Weapons, Missile Defense
Airbus to develop advanced PAZ-2 radar satellites for Spanish defence and civil operations
Rocket Lab partners with Bollinger Shipyards to transform Neutron sea recovery platform
Russia fires 136 drones at Ukraine ahead of Trump-NATO head meeting

24/7 News Coverage
ICEYE satellite data accelerates flood relief in southern Brazil
Massive Boulders Ejected During DART Mission Complicate Future Asteroid Deflection Efforts
Peatland restoration shows measurable climate benefits in under a decade


All rights reserved. Copyright Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.