EU AI pact gains support from over 100 companies

Brussels (The Brussels Morning Newspaper) – Around a hundred companies signed EU AI Pact vows to drive trustworthy and safe AI development.

The EU Commission announced over a hundred companies that are the foremost signatories of the EU Artificial Intelligence (AI) Pact and its voluntary commitments. The signatories include multinational companies and European small and medium enterprises (SMEs) from various sectors, including IT, telecoms, healthcare, banking, automotive, and aeronautics. 

What are the core commitments of companies under the AI pact?

The Pact sustains the industry’s voluntary commitments to begin applying the principles of the AI Act ahead of its entry into application and improves engagement between the EU AI Office and all relevant stakeholders, including industry, civil society and academia.

The EU AI Pact voluntary commitments call on participating companies to commit to at least three core actions including AI governance strategy to promote the uptake of AI in the organisation and position towards future compliance with the AI Act. High-risk AI systems mapping: Placing AI systems likely to be classified as high-risk under the AI Act. Advancing AI literacy and awareness among staff, ensuring ethical and responsible AI development.

What additional steps are companies taking beyond the core pledges?

In addition to these core pledges, more than half of the signatories are dedicated to additional pledges, including ensuring human oversight, mitigating threats, and transparently labeling specific types of AI-generated content, such as deep fakes. 

Alongside the steps to help companies execute the AI Act in anticipation of the legal deadline, the Commission is making an effort to boost EU innovation in AI. The AI Factories initiative of 10 September 2024 will deliver start-ups and industries with a one-stop-shop to innovate and develop AI, including data, skill, and computing power. The AI Factories will also drive the development and verification of AI industrial and scientific applications in critical European sectors such as healthcare, energy, automotive and transport, defence and aerospace, robotics and manufacturing, and clean and agritech.

AI Factories are a highlight of the EU Commission‘s AI innovation package introduced in January 2024, together with venture capital and equity support efforts, the deployment of Common European Data Spaces, the ‘GenAI4EU’ initiative, and the Large AI Grand Challenge providing start-ups financial support and access to EU’s supercomputers, among other measures. The Commission will also form a European AI Research Council to manipulate the potential of data, and the Apply AI Strategy to promote new industrial uses of AI.