Recently, the European Union has officially launched a consultation on rules for providers of General Purpose Artificial Intelligence (GPAI) models. These providers include well-known AI companies such as Anthropic, Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI. This consultation aims to provide guidance for developers on how to comply with legal obligations under the EU's Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act) framework, ensuring the "trustworthiness" of GPAI.
Image Source Note: The image was generated by AI, provided by the image licensing service Midjourney
According to the plan, the EU's Artificial Intelligence Act will come into effect on August 1, although the compliance period for the implementation of this act is staged, with relevant codes of conduct taking effect nine months later, in April 2025. This allows the EU ample time to develop relevant guidelines.
The European Commission hopes to solicit broad opinions from GPAI providers, businesses, civil society representatives, rights holders, and academic experts through this consultation. The Commission stated: "This consultation provides an opportunity for all stakeholders to express their views on topics covered in the first code of conduct." Additionally, these feedbacks will aid in related efforts, particularly in developing templates for summaries of GPAI model training content and related guidance.
The consultation questionnaire is divided into three parts, with the first part covering transparency and copyright-related clauses for GPAI; the second part focusing on risk classification, assessment, and mitigation rules for GPAI with systemic risks; and the third part discussing the review and monitoring of the GPAI code of conduct. The Commission said it would develop a preliminary draft of the code of conduct based on the submitted feedback and answers to targeted questions.
Participants in the consultation have the opportunity to influence the templates provided by the AI Office to GPAI providers, helping them meet legal requirements for providing summaries of model training content. Additionally, the AI Office has issued a letter of intent to participate in the drafting of the code of conduct, inviting qualified GPAI providers, downstream providers, and other interested organizations, as well as independent experts from the academic community to participate.
Interested parties can submit letters of intent to participate by August 25. The AI Office also plans to organize workshops to facilitate communication between participants and the meeting's hosts and deputy hosts, providing information support for subsequent draft preparation. The AI Office will ensure the transparency of these discussions and provide meeting records for all participants to review.
This consultation and the development of the code of conduct address previous concerns that civil society organizations might be excluded. The European Commission encourages all relevant parties to participate.
Key Points:
1. 📅 The EU has launched a consultation to establish rules for general-purpose AI to ensure its "trustworthiness."
2. 📝 The consultation questionnaire covers three main areas: transparency, risk assessment, and monitoring, widely soliciting opinions from various parties.
3. 🤝 The AI Office invites all stakeholders to participate in drafting the code of conduct, ensuring the process is transparent.