“Behind closed doors, the companies have fiercely lobbied the European Union to leave advanced artificial-intelligence systems unregulated.
These social impacts are neither hypothetical nor confined to the future. For example, from the Netherlands and the United Kingdom to Australia,
biased algorithms have falsely accused thousands of people of defrauding social-security benefits, with disastrous effects on
their lives and livelihoods. In the Netherlands this affected tens of thousands, mostly from low-income households
and/or a migrant background, driving victims into debt, homelessness and mental ill-health due to the
extreme stress they experienced.
Chief executives of Google, OpenAI and Microsoft have all shuttled to Europe to meet policy-makers at the highest level, including commission members and heads of state. Google’s Sundar Pichai even managed to have meetings with three commissioners in just one day.
Because of the scale and amounts of memory, data and hardware required, foundation models are primarily developed by the technology giants, such as Google and Microsoft. These near-monopolies in AI are reinforced through billion-dollar partnerships with ‘start-ups’, such as between Amazon and Anthropic or Microsoft and OpenAI. Tech giants have invested a massive $16.2 billion in OpenAI and Anthropic in the last year. As the AI Now Institute has written, ‘There is no AI without Big Tech.’
Just as Big Tobacco was eventually excluded from lobbying public-health officials after years of dirty lobbying tactics,
it is time to restrict Big Tech companies from lobbying the EU in their interests—when the public interest is at hazard.”
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“Behind closed doors, the companies have fiercely lobbied the European Union to leave advanced artificial-intelligence systems unregulated.
These social impacts are neither hypothetical nor confined to the future. For example, from the Netherlands and the United Kingdom to Australia,
biased algorithms have falsely accused thousands of people of defrauding social-security benefits, with disastrous effects on
their lives and livelihoods. In the Netherlands this affected tens of thousands, mostly from low-income households
and/or a migrant background, driving victims into debt, homelessness and mental ill-health due to the
extreme stress they experienced.
Chief executives of Google, OpenAI and Microsoft have all shuttled to Europe to meet policy-makers at the highest level, including commission members and heads of state. Google’s Sundar Pichai even managed to have meetings with three commissioners in just one day.
Because of the scale and amounts of memory, data and hardware required, foundation models are primarily developed by the technology giants, such as Google and Microsoft. These near-monopolies in AI are reinforced through billion-dollar partnerships with ‘start-ups’, such as between Amazon and Anthropic or Microsoft and OpenAI. Tech giants have invested a massive $16.2 billion in OpenAI and Anthropic in the last year. As the AI Now Institute has written, ‘There is no AI without Big Tech.’
Just as Big Tobacco was eventually excluded from lobbying public-health officials after years of dirty lobbying tactics,
it is time to restrict Big Tech companies from lobbying the EU in their interests—when the public interest is at hazard.”