Apple, Meta ignore EU artificial intelligence regulatory initiative for now

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The EU's AI Pact has a lot of big-name tech companies pledging to develop AI in a safe way, but Apple and Meta are the two outliers who aren't getting involved.

An iPhone running Apple Intelligence, in front of the EU flag
An iPhone running Apple Intelligence, in front of the EU flag



The European Commission announced on Wednesday that it had secured over a hundred signatures from companies signing up to the EU Artificial Intelligence Pact. Made up of voluntary pledges, the pact asks companies to work to ensure that AI is safe and produced in a responsible way.

The list of companies taking part in the pact includes quite a few major names, including Adobe, Google, IBM, HP, Qualcomm, Microsoft, and Open Ai, the creator of ChatGPT. However, that list doesn't include two major names in AI: Apple and Meta.

Apple has yet to say why it hasn't joined the pact, but Meta already has. Meta told Politico that it won't "rule out our joining the AI Pact at a later stage."

Meta went on to say it welcomes "harmonized EU rules and are focusing on our compliance work under the AI Act at this time." Meta adds "We also shouldn't lose sight of AI's huge potential to foster European innovation and enable competition, or else the EU will miss out on this one-in-a-generation opportunity."

What is the AI Pact



The AI Pact is a set of voluntary pledges that a company can sign up to undertake with regard to AI development and operation.

There are three core pledges to be undertaken, including creating an AI governance strategy to work towards future compliance with the AI Act, a legal framework for AI. Companies also should identify AI systems that could be categorized as "high-risk" under the AI Act.

Firms must also promote AI literacy and awareness among staff to ensure the ethical and responsible development of AI technologies.

Pact signees can also take on other extra pledges, including ensuring human oversight, the mitigation of risk, and transparent labeling of certain AI-generated content, such as deepfakes. More than half of the signees committed to the additional pledges.

Apple's AI development



So far, Apple's AI development has been relatively slow compared to the rest of the industry. It is, however, getting close to bringing out its Apple Intelligence suite of improvements to iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia.

As for Apple's efforts to make development of AI safer, it has already included rules in its AI to minimize the chance of hallucinations when answering prompts. Its creations also enshrine privacy for users, such as only performing off-device processing on servers using secure elements that include end-to-end encryption.

Apple has also signed up to adhere to voluntary AI safeguards, agreeing to a presidential executive order that deals with safety, minimizing risk, and establishing best practices for security.

Even so, despite not having its signature on the list, Apple could still sign up for the EU's AI Pact in the future.

That future may be a bit far away given the current spat between the EU and Apple over the Digital Markets Act. Apple said it wouldn't bring Apple Intelligence to the EU because of the DMA's limitations. The EU took the refusal to be a "stunning declaration" of anti-competitiveness.



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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 7
    Apple doesn’t sign their ridiculous pact because apple has already spent the effort and capital in developing ai responsibly. The eu just wants apple to give away even more and not be able to maximize return on their considerable investments. And… they want the credit for what apple already did. Eu just trying to get in front and control the whole movement. 

    The eu has been overstepping quite a bit and making a mess. Time to rethink eu participation. Would love to see free countries like the USA, Japan, Israel, Taiwan, etc. tell them what’s up and force them to cut the crap. 
    edited September 2024
    12Strangersdanoxbeowulfschmidtteejay2012watto_cobra
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  • Reply 2 of 7
    *Any* regulation of ai by “western” countries will just cede the most advanced ai technology to the non democratic countries.
     0Likes 0Dislikes 0Informatives
  • Reply 3 of 7
    Neither Apple nor Meta want the EU telling them what they are allowed and not allowed to do with AI, and with whom to share everything they've developed, into which this "pact" will eventually morph.

    FeckEU.

    watto_cobra
     1Like 0Dislikes 0Informatives
  • Reply 4 of 7
    Didn’t Apple, Google, Facebook, OpenAI and some others already sign a pact ensuring this?

    Edit: I think it was this https://appleinsider.com/articles/24/02/08/apple-joins-meta-google-facebook-on-new-us-government-ai-safety-initiative
    edited September 2024
    watto_cobra
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  • Reply 5 of 7
    avon b7avon b7 Posts: 8,304member
    Neither Apple nor Meta want the EU telling them what they are allowed and not allowed to do with AI, and with whom to share everything they've developed, into which this "pact" will eventually morph.

    FeckEU.

    AS noted in the article, the EU AI Act is on its way and rightly so. 

    Protections for AI will eventually be baked into legislation in all developed nations so there will be no getting away from being told what to do. 
     0Likes 0Dislikes 0Informatives
  • Reply 6 of 7
    danoxdanox Posts: 3,816member
    The genie out of the bottle and the bull is out of the barn running down the road….those who want to move forward will move forward and those who want to be left behind will be left behind. Whatever features, Apple designs that don’t make it to the EU just won’t make it and the same will apply for all those AI modeling teams working on designing the best they can. 

    They can’t castrate themselves and design something inferior to their competition working outside the EU. Example the rail systems in the United States froze and the rest of the world went forward. Following the EU will only lead to tech mediocrity, at this point in history they chase out most of their best and brightest in the AI field and the French will find a way to burn out Mistral no matter how good they are.

    https://time.com/6695958/ai-infrastructure-germany-uk/ The EU is already dead in AI… thru self castration….

    https://www.bakermckenzie.com/en/insight/publications/2023/11/ai-regulation-agreement-germany-france-italy More castration.
    edited September 2024
    watto_cobra
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  • Reply 7 of 7
    Apple is a for profit company that can enter or leave markets as they see fit. If they don’t want to deploy AI in Europe that’s a business decision. It may be good or bad but it’s their right.
    watto_cobra
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