EU rules stifle AI innovation, claims Meta letter Computerworld [Video]

The letter signed by 49 companies and researchers argues that EU rules are damaging AI development — but is this really all about Meta’s battle to promote its Llama large language model?

Credit: Skorzewiak / Shutterstock

The European Union risks becoming an artificial intelligence backwater thanks to a “fragmented and unpredictable” regulatory environment that is damaging the technology’s development.

That’s according to a blunt open letter and newspaper advertisement signed by 49 executives, researchers and industry organizations, notably including the CEOs of SAP, Spotify, and Ericsson.

But it is the appearance on the list of two other signatories — Meta’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg and its chief AI scientist, Yann LeCun — that frame the whole communication, which appears to have been Meta’s idea.

“We are a group of companies, researchers and institutions integral to Europe and working to serve hundreds of millions of Europeans,” opened the letter, before getting to the meat of its complaint.  

“If companies and institutions are going …