EU calls for use of data to train artificial intelligence

“It is important to note that the open letter is not intended to challenge the recently passed EU AI Act,” said Nils Rauer, an expert on the intersection of AI and law at Pinsent Masons. “Data is key. Every AI application requires appropriate access to data. This starts with model training and continues throughout the product lifecycle. AI without continuous feedback is useless.”

“The creation of a robust regulatory framework for the development and implementation of AI is very much welcomed across all business sectors,” added Cerys Wyn Davies, who also specialises in AI law at Pinsent Masons. “Businesses need legal certainty and security. These are prerequisites for investing in the development of modern technologies.”

In their letter, the signatories said the effective functioning of the EU single market and a “common set of regulatory rules” could enable the EU to “compete with the rest of the world on AI and benefit from open source models.” However, they raised concerns about the lack of such essential building blocks for investment.

“If companies and institutions are to invest tens of billions of euros in building generative AI for European citizens, they need clear rules, consistently applied, to enable the use of European data,” the signatories said. “However, in recent times, regulatory decision-making has become fragmented and unpredictable, while interventions by European data protection authorities have created huge uncertainty about what types of data can be used to train AI models. This means that the next generation of open-source AI models and the products and services we build on them will not understand or reflect European knowledge, culture or languages.”

“Europe faces a choice that will affect the region for decades. It can choose to reaffirm the principle of harmonisation enshrined in regulatory frameworks such as GDPR so that AI innovation happens here at the same scale and speed as elsewhere. Or it can continue to reject progress, betray the ambitions of the single market and watch the rest of the world build on technologies that Europeans will not have access to. We hope that European policymakers and regulators will see what is at stake if there is no change of course,” they said.