The leaders of dozens of European companies have called on the European Union in an open letter to postpone the application of its regulation on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) by two years.
On Thursday morning, 46 CEOs – from companies including Airbus, BNP Paribas, Carrefour, Lufthansa, Mercedes-Benz and TotalEnergies – had signed the text. They criticise the "unclear, overlapping and increasingly complex" EU regulations in the open letter, which is addressed to the European Commission.
They believe that these regulations threaten to jeopardise the development of AI in Europe, as well as the industry's ability to deploy the technology on the scale necessary to remain internationally competitive. "That is why we – leaders of European companies from multiple sectors and countries, employing hundreds of thousands of people – feel compelled to speak out."
'Simplification and competitiveness'
Specifically, the CEOs are asking the EU to postpone the application of its AI Regulation by two years. It officially came into force in August last year, but will only apply to general-purpose AI models from August this year and to high-risk AI systems from August 2027.
By postponing the application of parts of the AI law by two years at a time, the EU would give companies extra breathing space for an "innovation-friendly" implementation of the rules, which could also be subject to "further simplification" in the meantime.
"The delay, coupled with a commitment to prioritise quality over speed in regulation, would send a strong signal to innovators and investors worldwide that Europe is serious about its simplification and competitiveness agenda," the open letter states.
