After discussions with European Commission Thierry Breton, technology company executives Mark Zuckerberg and Sam Altman have expressed their support for government oversight of artificial intelligence. The commissioner said that he and Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta Platforms, were “aligned” on the EU’s regulation of artificial intelligence, which is now in the final stages of negotiations. They agreed on the bloc’s risk-based approach and the use of measures such as watermarking, Breton said.
Altman, CEO of OpenAI, also agrees with the EU’s approach to AI. He added that he appreciated the European institution’s foresight in taking the issue seriously for the rest of the world. Altman assured Breton that OpenAI would work with the EU to offer European services that comply with the European market. OpenAI is responsible for developing the popular chatbot ChatGPT, which has generated a lot of interest in generative AI, the technology that produces text or images in response to a user’s prompts.
Nick Clegg, Meta’s president of global affairs, said that his company shared its support for the objectives of the AI Pact, adding that while they need to study the details, they recognize the importance of tech companies being open about the work they’re doing on AI and engaging collaboratively across the industry, governments, and civil society.
Stress test of systems and resources fighting disinformation
The discussions on Friday were part of Breton’s tour of technology companies. After his visit to Meta, Breton said that the owner of Facebook and Instagram appeared to be well-prepared to meet Europe’s new strict content moderation rules, but the company will submit to a stress test of its systems next month. Meta presented a lot of information about its work to comply with the European Union’s Digital Services Act, but they were also willing to take a stress test “not to forget anything,” he said.
Zuckerberg agreed to a test in mid-July to assess how the company handles content moderation rules. Breton said that Meta has around 1,000 people working on DSA implementation. The CEO of Meta was also interested in a future test of how the company’s platforms will handle upcoming competition rules set out by the EU’s Digital Markets Act. Companies have to self-report as gatekeepers with certain core platform services on July 3.
Breton also urged Zuckerberg to increase resources fighting disinformation, especially Russian disinformation in Eastern European countries about the war in Ukraine. He discussed a report from the Wall Street Journal about child predators targeting kids on Meta’s Instagram photo-sharing site. Clegg, in a tweet, called it a “constructive” conversation. “We’ve invited his team to our Dublin campus to see how we’re stress-testing our processes ahead of implementation,” he said.
Separately, Breton discussed artificial intelligence with Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, the world’s most-valuable chipmaker, which leads the market in supplying processors for AI. After the sit-down, Huang told reporters it was “extremely likely” that Nvidia would invest in Europe. On Thursday, Breton met with Twitter owner Elon Musk and new CEO Linda Yaccarino and told reporters that the social media site needs to put more resources toward addressing sensitive content if it wants to comply with EU rules ahead of an August deadline.
Technology company executives Mark Zuckerberg and Sam Altman have expressed their support for government oversight of artificial intelligence after discussions with European Commission Thierry Breton. They agree with the EU’s regulation of artificial intelligence and its risk-based approach, as well as its measures like watermarking. Zuckerberg has agreed to a stress test of Meta’s systems next month, while Altman has stated that OpenAI will work with the EU to offer European services that comply with the European market. Breton also urged Zuckerberg to increase resources fighting disinformation, especially Russian disinformation, and discussed a report about child predators targeting kids on Meta’s Instagram photo-sharing site.
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