General-purpose AI: way forward after the AI Act

Key points

The EESC:

• believes that to be competitive in general-purpose AI (GPAI), Europe must invest in secure connectivity and resilient backbone infrastructure as well as a resilient supply chain to ensure that the effects of generative AI can be harnessed for European actors and aligned with European values and needs;
• advises organising dialogues with stakeholders, including social partners, about the codes of practice in workplaces and workers’ rights in the context of GPAI;
• stresses that a coordinated European and national investment in innovation as well as mobilising the tools of competition policy is needed in order to combat a market concentration dominated by large, often non-European, digital companies and help develop EU value chains and value creation in AI;
• expects the codes of practise with respect to the AI Act to provide users, developers and other AI stakeholders with guidelines for applying the regulation and other tools in order to make it easier for companies to comply with the regulations;
• emphasizes that the AI Office and national authorities must have the necessary resources to monitor, evaluate and enforce the provisions of the law, ensuring compliance and consumer rights protection;
• is conscious of the concerns that various categories of content creators currently have about the use of generative AI and stresses that it is of utmost importance to ensure that AI is developed in a way that respects patentability, copyright and intellectual property rules;
• reiterates that AI can increase energy and resource efficiency by improving processes and providing solutions for reducing the use of materials while it can also have an impact on the environment and energy usage, which must be accurately measured and considered.

For more information, please contact the INT Section Secretariat