Industry flags 'serious concerns' with latest draft of EU AI code of practice

The tech sector remains concerned about a proposed set of rules for providers of General-Purpose Artificial Intelligence (GPAI) after the latest draft was published by a European Commission- appointed expert group on Tuesday, several lobby groups told Euronews.

The Code of Practice on GPAI should help providers of AI models – tools that can perform many tasks such as ChatGPT, Google Gemini and picture application Midjourney – comply with the EU’s AI Act and includes transparency and copyright-related rules, risk assessment, and mitigation measures.

Previous versions of the text have raised copyright issues, among others, and industry representatives such as publishers and rights-holders are dissatisfied with the latest updates, sector operators told Euronews. 

Boniface de Champris, senior policy manager at tech lobby group CCIA said that “serious issues remain”, including “far-ranging obligations regarding copyright and transparency, which would threaten trade secrets, as well as burdensome external risk assessments.” 

“The new draft makes limited progress from its highly problematic predecessor, yet the GPAI Code continues to fall short of providing companies with the legal certainty that’s needed to drive AI innovation in Europe,” he added. 

Elias Papadopoulos, director of policy at internet lobby group DOT Europe, said that at first glance the draft “has been somewhat improved”, but that some provisions still go beyond the requirements of the AI Act.

“For example, mandatory third-party risk assessment pre- and post-deployment, although not an obligation in the AI Act itself, unfortunately remains in the new draft,” he said.

The expert group, which includes actors from the EU, US and Canada, last month pushed back a previous