Tech giants Apple and Meta refuse to sign EU’s new AI safety pact

Apple and Meta have chosen not to sign the European Union’s new AI safety pact, even as they continue to navigate regulatory disputes with EU authorities.

The EU AI Pact, a voluntary initiative, seeks to ensure the development of safe and trustworthy artificial intelligence (AI) systems.

Over 100 companies, including tech giants such as Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, have endorsed the agreement.

However, other notable players like AI firm Anthropic and TikTok have also refrained from signing.

The pact revolves around three primary goals: raising awareness of AI risks, identifying high-risk AI systems, and adopting governance strategies to manage AI’s development.

The European Union, which recently implemented the AI Act, has been at the forefront of setting global legal standards for AI.

This comprehensive legal framework, the first of its kind, aims to regulate companies developing AI technologies while mitigating the potential risks they pose to safety, health, and fundamental rights.

Despite this, Apple and Meta’s refusal to sign the agreement is seen as part of a broader tension between the companies and EU regulators.

Meta, in particular, has faced legal challenges this year, including a directive from the Irish Data Protection Commission that forced the company to pause the rollout of its AI assistant in Europe.

The dispute centred around Meta’s use of personal data to train its AI models for platforms like Facebook and Instagram.

In response to the AI Act, Meta expressed its commitment to complying with the new regulations but indicated it was not ready to join the AI Pact at this time.

A spokesperson for Meta stated: "We welcome harmonised EU regulations and are focused on complying with the AI Act, but we do not rule out joining the AI Pact later."

The company also highlighted AI’s potential to drive innovation and competition within Europe, warning that the EU could miss out on significant opportunities if it focuses solely on risk mitigation without promoting the benefits of AI development.

Apple, on the other hand, has yet to comment extensively on its refusal to sign the pact, though it too is reportedly prioritising compliance with the EU’s AI Act.

Both companies’ reluctance to participate underscores the ongoing friction between major tech firms and European regulators as they try to balance AI's transformative potential with the need for robust safety measures.

Apple, Meta explore AI collaboration, WSJ reports

Earlier this year, in a related development, Apple and Meta had explored potential collaborations in the AI space, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal.

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, had reportedly discussed integrating its generative AI model into Apple’s newly announced AI system for iPhones.

The discussions also extended to AI startups Anthropic and Perplexity, as these companies looked to bring their AI capabilities to Apple's evolving platform.

While no deals were finalised, such partnerships could have helped AI firms gain wider distribution of their products through Apple’s ecosystem.

The report suggested that these collaborations could have involved AI companies selling premium subscriptions to their services via Apple Intelligence.

Although the financial specifics of the potential deals remained unclear, integrating third-party AI models into Apple’s ecosystem would have been a significant step in Apple’s broader AI strategy, which it had announced earlier in the month.

This strategy included embedding AI into core apps like Siri and introducing OpenAI's ChatGPT to Apple devices.