The European Union has been pressured by executives of leading European tech firms, including Airbus, BNP Paribas, and other firms to put its new artificial intelligence law on hold. According to the firms, it could undermine the bloc’s ability to keep pace with the United States and China.
According to the Financial Times, CEOs of major companies asked the EU’s Ursula von der Leyen to delay the AI Act for two years. They warned that overlapping, unclear rules could discourage investment and slow down AI development across Europe.
In their letter, they argued that the European complex rulebook “puts Europe’s AI ambitions at risk, as it jeopardizes not only the development of European champions but also the ability of all industries to deploy AI at the scale required by global competition.” Among those who added their signatures were the chief executives of Carrefour, a French retailer, and Dutch health‐tech group Philips.
European Union AI champions commitment to competitive rules
The letter was organized by the European AI Champions Initiative, a coalition of 110 companies across various sectors. It said a two-year pause would send “innovators and investors around the world a strong signal that Europe is serious about its simplification and competitiveness agenda.” Start-up founders and their investors have voiced similar concerns.
In a separate letter this week, over 30 start-ups chiefs in the EU warned that the legislation was “a rushed ticking time bomb.” They fear that unclear rules on general-purpose models could lead to a patchwork of national regulations, giving well-funded US tech giants an edge over smaller local firms.
Many businesses worry that any company using LLMs in its own systems would face the same regulations as the biggest tech groups, especially in sensitive areas including liability of copyrights. Some say the lack of clarity on how member states will apply the rules may deter firms from rolling out AI tools, causing them losses against rivals in North America and Asia.
The EU Commission stressed that it remains “fully committed to the main goals of the AI Act, which include establishing harmonized risk-based rules across the EU and ensuring the safety of AI systems on the European market.” It added that it is simplifying its digital rulebook broadly so that it can consider all options in the current state.