EU AI Act reaction: Tech experts say the world's first AI law is 'historic' but 'bittersweet'

Europe’s policymakers have rushed to spin out rules and warnings to tech companies since the launch of ChatGPT and this week has been monumental in establishing the EU’s artificial intelligence (AI) rules.

On Wednesday, the European Parliament approved the Artificial Intelligence Act, which takes a risk-based approach to ensure companies release products that comply with the law before they are made available to the public.

A day later, the European Commission, asked Bing, Facebook, Google Search, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, and X under separate legislation to detail how they are curbing the risks of generative AI.

While the EU is mostly concerned about AI hallucinations (when the models make errors and make things up), the viral dissemination of deepfakes, and the automated manipulation of AI that could mislead voters in elections, the tech community has its own gripes with the legislation while some researchers say it does not go far enough.

While Brussels deserves “real credit” for being the first jurisdiction globally to pass regulation mitigating AI’s many risks, there are several problems with the final agreement, said Max von Thun, Europe director of the Open Markets Institute.

There are “significant loopholes for public authorities” and “relatively weak regulation of the largest foundation models that pose the greatest harm,” he told Euronews Next.

Foundation models are machine learning models that are trained on data and can be used to perform a range of tasks, such as writing a poem, for instance. ChatGPT is a foundational model.

However, von Thun’s biggest concern is tech monopolies.

“The AI Act is incapable of addressing the number one threat AI currently poses: its role in increasing and entrenching the