Microsoft, Google, and Amazon are a few of the 100 companies to have signed the EU’s Artificial Intelligence pact so far.
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The AI pact is made up of three central commitments, albeit voluntary: adopting a strategy that is compliant with the AI Act, identifying and mapping potentially high-risk systems, and promoting AI literacy and awareness.
Meta is one prominent name that has not yet signed the commitment, although it has said it is open to discussions. Apple is another missing signatory from the “Big Four” technology companies.
The European Commission announced the long list of pledges it had received in a press release: “Over a hundred companies that are the first signatories of the EU artificial intelligence (AI) Pact and its voluntary pledges.”
“The signatories include multinational corporations and European small and medium enterprises (SMEs) from diverse sectors, including IT, telecoms, healthcare, banking, automotive, and aeronautics.”
The Pact supports industry’s voluntary commitments to start applying the principles of the AI Act ahead of its entry into application and enhances engagement between the EU AI Office and all relevant stakeholders, including industry, civil society and academia.”
AI Intelligence Pact
The Commission explained that beyond the aforementioned pledges, which are the minimum requirements, more than half of the signatories have committed to ensuring human oversight, mitigating risks, and clearly labelling certain AI-generated content, including deepfakes.
Companies are still able to sign the AI Pact at any time before the AI Act comes into effect.
The AI Act began on August 1 2024. While some provisions are already applicable, the entire act will not be fully operational until two years following this launch date.
Other notable signatories of the AI Pact are Accenture, Adobe, Amazon, Cisco, Cohere, IBM, Logitech, Nokia, Qualcomm, Salesforce, and SAP.
AI Factories
The Commission is also looking to boost EU innovation in AI by pushing businesses to adhere to the AI Act.
The initiative, introduced on September 10 this year, will give start-ups a “one-stop shop” for developing AI, including talent, data, and computing power.
It is also set to boost the development of AI apps in healthcare, energy, automotive, transport, robotics, defence and aerospace, agritech, manufacturing, and more.
The Commission added: “AI Factories are a highlight of the Commission’s AI innovation package presented in January 2024, together with venture capital and equity support measures, the deployment of Common European Data Spaces, the ‘GenAI4EU’ initiative, and the Large AI Grand Challenge giving start-ups financial support and access to EU’s supercomputers, among other measures.”
The Commission will also set up a European AI Research Council to exploit the potential of data, and the Apply AI Strategy to boost new industrial uses of AI.”
Earlier this month, The UK agreed to an international treaty designed to protect people from the threats posed by artificial intelligence.
Lord Chancellor Shabana Mahmood signed the new framework, agreed by the Council of Europe, committing the UK to take action to keep the public safe from the evolving technology.
