As the European Union rushes to agree AI rules next month, Google’s chief legal officer Kent Walker said on Tuesday that regulations governing the use of AI should foster innovation. Walker’s remarks echoed those of a broad range of businesses and tech groups.
In an effort to reach a consensus by December 6, EU nations and legislators are currently ironing out the last details of a draft proposal by the European Commission.
A major problem is foundation models, like ChatGPT from OpenAI, which are AI systems trained on massive amounts of data and able to learn from fresh data to accomplish a range of tasks.
Walker said that rather than aiming for the first AI regulations, Europe should pursue the best ones.
“Technological leadership requires a balance between innovation and regulation. Not micromanaging progress, but holding actors responsible when they violate public trust,” he said in the text of a speech to be delivered at a European Business Summit.
“We’ve long said that AI is too important not to regulate, and too important not to regulate well. The race should be for the best AI regulations, not the first AI regulations.”
In order to build on current regulations and give businesses the confidence they need to continue investing in AI innovation, he called for proportionate, risk-based rules that make hard trade-offs between security and openness, data access and privacy, and explainability and accuracy.
The EU was forewarned last week by the business group DigitalEurope and 32 European digital associations not to overregulate foundation models.