(Reuters) – Meta Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg and Spotify Chief Executive Daniel Ek criticised European regulation of open-source artificial intelligence, saying complex rules risked leaving the continent behind.
Europe, which has “more open source developers than the United States,” is well positioned to make the most of the open source AI wave, the CEOs said in a joint statement on Friday.
“However, a fragmented regulatory structure with inconsistent enforcement stifles innovation and holds back developers.”
Instead of clear rules, the CEOs said the European tech industry faces “overlapping regulations and inconsistent guidelines for complying with them.”
A streamlined regulatory framework will not only accelerate the growth of open source AI, but also provide support to European developers and the broader creator ecosystem, they said.
In June, Ireland's privacy regulator told Meta not to deploy its AI models in Europe for now after it was told to postpone plans to use data from Facebook and Instagram users.
Current regulations mean Meta cannot release upcoming AI models in Europe, such as Llama multimodal, which has image understanding capabilities.
This means Europeans will be left with “AI made for others,” the CEOs said.
Spotify pointed to its early investments in AI to create personalized experiences for users as the driving force behind the success of its streaming service.
Laws designed to boost European sovereignty and competitiveness are having the opposite effect, they said, adding that Europe should “use the benefits of a single yet diverse market to simplify and harmonise regulations”.
The CEOs concluded that Europe needed a new approach, with clearer policies and more consistent enforcement, and that current practices would miss a “once-in-a-generation opportunity”.
The European Commission did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
(Reporting by Juby Babu in Mexico City; Editing by Shreya Biswas)
