Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Spotify CEO Daniel Ek have criticised European regulations surrounding open-source artificial intelligence, saying the continent risks falling behind because of complex rules.
TakeAway Points:
- European laws pertaining to open-source artificial intelligence have drawn criticism from CEOs of Meta and Spotify, Daniel Ek, and Mark Zuckerberg, claiming that the complicated constraints could force the continent to lag behind.
- The CEOs said the tech industry in Europe faces “overlapping regulations and inconsistent guidance on how to comply with them” instead of clear rules.
- Meta said on Friday that it had identified possible hacking attempts on the WhatsApp accounts of U.S. officials from the administrations of both President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.
Meta and Spotify criticise European Laws
Europe, which “has more open-source developers than America,” is well placed to make the most of the open-source AI wave, the CEOs said in a joint statement on Friday.
“Yet its fragmented regulatory structure, riddled with inconsistent implementation, is hampering innovation and holding back developers.”
The CEOs said the tech industry in Europe faces “overlapping regulations and inconsistent guidance on how to comply with them” instead of clear rules.
A streamlined regulatory framework would 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, the Irish privacy regulator asked Meta not to launch its AI models in Europe for the time being after the company was told to delay plans to harness data from Facebook and Instagram users.
Given the current regulations, Meta will not be able to release its upcoming AI models, such as Llama multimodal, which has the capability to understand images, in Europe.
This would mean Europeans would be “left with AI built for someone else,” the CEOs said.
Spotify pointed to its early investment in AI to create personalized experiences for users, which has led to the streaming service’s success.
Laws that have been designed to increase European sovereignty and competitiveness are achieving the opposite, they said, adding that Europe should be “simplifying and harmonizing regulations by leveraging the benefits of a single yet diverse market.”
The CEOs concluded that Europe needs a new approach with clearer policies and more consistent enforcement, adding that it will miss a “once-in-a-generation opportunity” on its current path.
Meta raises alarm about possible hacking attempts on WhatsApp accounts
Meta said on Friday it had identified possible hacking attempts on the WhatsApp accounts of U.S. officials from the administrations of both President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, blaming the same Iranian hacker group revealed earlier this month to have compromised the Trump campaign.
In a blog post, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp described the attempt as a “small cluster of likely social engineering activity on WhatsApp” involving accounts posing as technical support for AOL, Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft.
It blocked the accounts after users reported the activity as suspicious and had not seen any evidence suggesting the targeted WhatsApp accounts had been compromised, it said.
Meta attributed the activity to APT42, a hacking group widely believed to be associated with an intelligence division inside Iran’s military that is known for placing surveillance software on the mobile phones of its victims. The software enables the team to record calls, steal text messages and silently turn on cameras and microphones, according to researchers who follow the group.
It linked the group’s activity to efforts to breach U.S. presidential campaigns reported by Microsoft and Google earlier this month, ahead of the U.S. presidential election in November.
The company’s blog post did not name the individuals targeted, saying only that the hackers “appeared to have focused on political and diplomatic officials, businesses, and other public figures, including some associated with the administrations of President Biden and former President Trump.”
Those figures were based in Israel, the Palestinian territories, Iran, the United States, and the United Kingdom, it added.
