"France, Germany, Italy push for ‘mandatory self-regulation’ for foundation models in EU’s AI law"

The three biggest EU countries are pushing for codes of conduct without an initial sanction regime for foundation models rather than prescriptive obligations in the AI rulebook, according to a non-paper seen by Euractiv.

The AI Act is a flagship EU legislation to regulate Artificial Intelligence based on its capacity to cause harm. The file is currently at the last phase of the legislative process, where the EU Commission, Council, and Parliament gather in ‘trilogues’ to hash out the law’s final dispositions.

The negotiations on the world’s first comprehensive AI law have been disrupted by the rise of ChatGPT, a versatile type of AI system known as General Purpose AI, which is built on OpenAI’s powerful foundation model GPT-4.

On 10 November, Euractiv reported that the entire legislation was at risk following mounting opposition from France, which gained support from Germany and Italy in its push against any regulation on foundation models. [...]

The three countries also do not want sanctions to apply at the beginning. According to them, a sanction regime would only be set up following systematic infringements of the codes of conduct and a ‘proper’ analysis and impact assessment of the identified failures.

For the three, European standards could also be an important tool to create the adaptive capacity needed to take into account future developments.

The approach to foundation models will be at the centre of a discussion of the Telecom Working Party, a technical Council body, on Tuesday (21 November). On the same day, MEPs will hold an internal meeting on the matter, followed by a dinner with the Council presidency and the Commission.

“This is a declaration of war,” a parliament official told Euractiv on condition of anonymity.