Zuckerberg, Altman Offer support for EU regulation of AI

Technology company executives Mark Zuckerberg and Sam Altman expressed support for government oversight of artificial intelligence after discussions with European Commission Thierry Breton.

Mark Zuckerberg and Sam Altman expressed support for government oversight of artificial intelligence. (AFP)

Technology company executives Mark Zuckerberg and Sam Altman expressed support for government oversight of artificial intelligence after discussions with European Commission Thierry Breton.

The commissioner said Friday that he and Zuckerberg, chief executive officer of Meta Platforms Inc., were “aligned” on the EU's regulation of artificial intelligence, which is now in final negotiations. They agreed on the bloc's risk-based approach and to measures like watermarking, Breton said.

Altman, CEO of OpenAI, said he, too, agrees with the EU approach on AI, adding “I really appreciate the European institution here, and the foresight on taking this issue so seriously, for the rest of the world, too.”

“We look forward to working with you to be running well in advance and offering a European service in compliance with the European market,” Altman told Breton. OpenAI developed the popular chatbot ChatGPT, which has created intense interest in the possibilities of generative AI, the technology the produces text or images in response to a user's prompts.

Nick Clegg, Meta's president of global affairs, said his company “shared our support for the objectives of the AI Pact. While we need to study the details, we recognize it's important for tech companies to be open about the work they're doing on AI & engage collaboratively across industry, governments & civil society.”

The discussions on Friday were part of Breton's tour this week of technology companies. After his visit to Meta, Breton said the owner of Facebook and Instagram appears well-prepared to meet Europe's new strict content moderation rules, but will submit to a stress test of its systems next month.

Meta presented “a lot of information” about its work to comply with the European Union's Digital Services Act, but were also happy to take a stress test “not to forget anything,” he said.

Zuckerberg agreed to a test in mid-July to assess how the company handles content moderation rules. Breton said Meta has roughly 1,000 people working on DSA implementation.

Meta's CEO was interested in a future test of how the company's platforms will handle upcoming competition rules set out by the EU's Digital Markets Act. Companies have to self report as gatekeepers with certain core platform services on July 3.

Breton also said he urged Zuckerberg to increase resources fighting disinformation, especially Russian disinformation in Eastern European countries about the war in Ukraine. And he discussed a report from the Wall Street Journal about child predators targeted kids on Meta's Instagram photo-sharing site.

Clegg, in a tweet, called it a “constructive” conversation. “We've invited his team to our Dublin campus to see how we're stress testing our processes ahead of implementation,” he said.

Separately, Breton discussed artificial intelligence with Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia Corp., the world's most-valuable chipmaker, which leads the market in supplying processors for AI. After the sit-down, Huang told reporters it was “extremely likely” that Nvidia would invest in Europe.

On Thursday, Breton met with Twitter owner Elon Musk and new CEO Linda Yaccarino and told reporters that the social media site needs to put more resources toward addressing sensitive content if it wants to comply with the EU's rules ahead of an August deadline.