Meta Platforms, Inc., Spotify, and several companies criticized the European Union (EU) for its inconsistent decisions regarding data privacy and artificial intelligence (AI) in an open letter released on Thursday.
The signatories, which also include industry bodies and researchers and firms such as Ericsson, SAP and Thyssenkrupp expressed concerns that Europe is "falling further behind" in AI competitiveness. They urged the EU to adopt "harmonized, clear, and swift" regulations to allow the use of European data for AI training, "benefiting" Europeans.
The letter highlights recent actions, such as the one taken under the 2018 General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which have impacted companies like Meta, are "fragmented and inconsistent". "Interventions by the European Data Protection Authorities have created huge uncertainty about what kinds of data can be used to train AI models," the letter said.