On September 26th, Caixin News Agency reported that the European Commission announced the first batch of signatories to the Convention on Artificial Intelligence (hereinafter referred to as the "Convention") on Wednesday (September 25th), with over 100 signatories. The focus of the Convention is to enable companies to issue "voluntary commitments" on how to handle and deploy artificial intelligence.
Although the legally binding EU Artificial Intelligence Act (hereinafter referred to as the "Act") came into effect last month, all compliance deadlines are still set aside for several years before it can take effect. This has created a gap for a period of time, and the EU hopes to fill this gap with the Convention.
The European Commission stated that these "voluntary commitments" were drafted by the Artificial Intelligence Office, the supervisory body of the Act. After collecting feedback from relevant stakeholders in the AI Convention, the final list of commitments allows signatories to choose their own commitments, provided that at least three "core actions" are committed to:
Adopting artificial intelligence governance strategies, promoting the adoption of artificial intelligence by organizations, and striving to comply with the Act in the future;
According to the Act, identifying and locating artificial intelligence systems that may be classified as high-risk;
Enhance employees' awareness and literacy of artificial intelligence, ensuring the ethical and responsible development of artificial intelligence.
At present, the companies on the list include Amazon, Microsoft, OpenAI, Google, Palantir, Samsung SAP、Salesforce、Snap、 Airbus, Porsche, Lenovo, Qualcomm, and others have a wide coverage, including telecommunications companies, consulting firms, software companies, banks/payment companies, multinational corporations, small and medium-sized enterprises, and consumer oriented platforms.
The Convention aims to increase participation and promote commitment, and also focuses on promoting information sharing so that signatories can help each other in response to the new requirements of the EU Artificial Intelligence Act, and actively develop best practices.
The signatories were also invited to report on their progress 12 months after announcing their commitments, providing an opportunity for the next round of promotion. Overall, the Convention will help companies gain reputation and influence, and also stimulate competition among signatories.
Meta and Apple are absent
In May 2023, Thierry Breto, who was then the EU Internal Market Commissioner, revealed an initiative for the Convention, and Google agreed to assist regulatory agencies in carrying out the initiative. More than a year has passed, and there are more signatures on the Convention.
However, it is worth noting that some of the most well-known tech giants seem to be absent, such as Meta and Apple, which are not on the list. Meta also explained on Tuesday (September 24th) that it will not join immediately as it hopes to focus its compliance efforts on the Act itself.
In addition, Mistral AI, a large French language modeling company, is not on the list. The company is one of the most vocal critics of the bill, so it is not surprising that it did not sign a voluntary commitment.
Anthropic, Nvidia, and Spotify are also absent from the list. It is worth mentioning that last month, a joint open letter from Meta organization publicly opposed regulatory regulations that may hinder the spread of generative artificial intelligence, and Spotify also signed the letter.
Why is the Convention not favored by some companies? From the nature of the Bill and the Convention themselves, the former is legally binding, while the latter is purely a voluntary commitment.
This means that if the company does not comply with the Act, it will face severe penalties. According to regulations, fines for violating the ban on artificial intelligence will reach up to 7% of the company's global annual revenue, fines for violating other obligations can reach up to 3%, and fines for providing incorrect information can reach up to 1.5%. By contrast, if a company violates its commitments under the Convention, it will at most only face public condemnation. This may be the main reason why large companies such as Meta have neglected the Convention.