CEOs of Meta and Spotify Say EU Regulations ‘Stifle Innovation’

European Union (EU) regulations impacting artificial intelligence (AI) may deny the region’s businesses, academics and others the chance to participate in new technology investment and economic growth opportunities, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Spotify CEO Daniel Ek wrote in a joint statement released Friday (Aug. 23).

The CEOs wrote in the statement that tech companies doing business in Europe face “overlapping regulations and inconsistent guidance on how to comply with them.”

“Regulating against known harms is necessary, but pre-emptive regulation of theoretical harms for nascent technologies such as open-source AI will stifle innovation,” they wrote. “Europe’s risk-averse, complex regulation could prevent it from capitalizing on the big bets that can translate into big rewards.”

The statement highlighted a recent application of the European Union’s (EU) General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) that required Meta to delay training its AI models on content shared publicly by adults on its social media platforms, Facebook and Meta.

“In the short term, delaying the use of data that is routinely used in other regions means the most powerful AI models won’t reflect the collective knowledge, culture and languages of Europe — and Europeans won’t get to use the latest AI products,” the CEOs wrote.

They added that because of the current regulatory uncertainty in the region, Meta won’t be able to release upcoming models there, European organizations won’t be able to access the latest open-source technology and European citizens will have to use others’ AI.

“In short, Europe needs a new approach with clearer policies and more consistent enforcement,” Zuckerberg and Ek wrote in the statement. “With the right regulatory environment, combined with the right ambition and some of the world’s top AI talent, the EU would have a real chance of leading the next generation of tech innovation.”

There have been concerns that the retreat of Meta, Apple and other AI companies from offering advanced AI services in the EU could significantly impact commerce by limiting the availability of cutting-edge tools for businesses operating in the region, PYMNTS reported in July.

In June, European privacy group NOYB filed complaints with 11 European countries, arguing that Meta’s use of user data for AI training violates the GDPR.

“Meta is basically saying that it can use ‘any data from any source for any purpose and make it available to anyone in the world,’ as long as it’s done via ‘AI technology,’” NYOB founder Max Schrems said at the time in a press release. “This is clearly the opposite of GDPR compliance.”