Facebook and Instagram owner Meta Platforms has indicated it won’t be signing on to the European Union’s voluntary AI Code of Practice, which includes restrictions on how AI companies can collect copyrighted content.
In a statement posted to LinkedIn on Friday (July 18), Meta’s Chief Global Affairs Officer, Joel Kaplan, said the EU “is going down the wrong path” on AI policy.
“We have carefully reviewed the European Commission’s Code of Practice for general-purpose AI (GPAI) models and Meta won’t be signing it. This Code introduces a number of legal uncertainties for model developers, as well as measures which go far beyond the scope of the AI Act,” Kaplan wrote.
That sets Meta apart from a number of other major AI players, including ChatGPT maker OpenAI, which has declared that it will sign on to the voluntary Code of Practice.
On Monday (July 21), Anthropic, the AI developer being sued by music publishers over claims its Claude chatbot reproduced copyrighted lyrics, threw its support behind the Code of Practice, and according to a report at Reuters, Microsoft also plans to sign on.
The Code of Practice stems from the EU’s AI Act, a comprehensive law regulating the development and use of AI that was passed last year. The law applies to any company that makes it AI tools available in the European Union.
The European Commission says the Code will “reduce [the] administrative burden” on AI developers created by the AI Act and “give them more legal certainty than if they proved compliance through other methods.”
Among other things, the Code of Practice restricts how AI developers can collect copyrighted content. It requires AI companies not to circumvent restrictions placed by rightsholders on web-scraping of their data, and not to collect content from copyright-infringing sources such as digital piracy websites. It also requires the companies to draw up policies on how they address copyright law, and are “encouraged” to make those copyright policies public.
“We have carefully reviewed the European Commission’s Code of Practice for general-purpose AI (GPAI) models and Meta won’t be signing it.”
Joel Kaplan, Meta
The EU AI Act created an “opt-out” system for AI development that means copyright holders have to explicitly state that they don’t want their content to be used in training AI models. That rule prompted both Sony Music Group and Warner Music Group to send letters to AI companies telling them the music companies don’t consent to having their music or lyrics used to train AI.
Many AI developers, including those that say they are signing on to the Code of Conduct, have been accused of using pirate sites to download massive troves of copyrighted content.
For instance, Anthropic was recently ordered by a federal court in California to stand trial over its downloading of digital books from online pirate libraries.
In a congressional hearing last week, lawyer Maxwell Pritt, who’s litigating a number of copyright cases against AI companies, accused them of “what is likely the largest domestic piracy of intellectual property in [US] history.”
Pritt presented internal communications from Meta staff, indicating that they were aware of the fact they were using illegally obtained content to train the company’s AI models.
In his statement on LinkedIn, Meta’s Kaplan pointed to a recent letter to the European Commission signed by the heads of more than 40 major European companies urging the EU to “stop the clock” on the implementation of the EU’s AI Act.
The letter, signed by the heads of companies including Airbus, BNP Paribas, Lufthansa, Mercedes-Benz, Philips, Total and leading French AI startup Mistral, said AI development in Europe is at risk of being “disrupted by unclear, overlapping and increasingly complex EU regulations.”
They argued the AI Act could potentially put European AI developers at a disadvantage and also delay the implementation of AI technologies across businesses, making Europe less competitive.
“We share concerns raised by these businesses that this over-reach will throttle the development and deployment of frontier AI models in Europe, and stunt European companies looking to build businesses on top of them,” Kaplan wrote.
“If thoughtfully implemented, the EU AI Act and Code will enable Europe to harness the most significant technology of our time to power innovation and competitiveness.”
Anthropic
However, other AI companies took a more positive view of the AI Act and the Code of Practice.
“We believe the Code advances the principles of transparency, safety and accountability – values that have long been championed by Anthropic for frontier AI development,” Anthropic stated on its website.
“If thoughtfully implemented, the EU AI Act and Code will enable Europe to harness the most significant technology of our time to power innovation and competitiveness.”
OpenAI said signing the Code of Practice “reflects our commitment to ensuring continuity, reliability, and trust as regulations take effect, while continuing to partner with European businesses and citizens, bringing them increasingly capable, safe, and secure AI models to reap the benefits of the AI revolution.”Music Business Worldwide
