{"id":170577,"date":"2025-11-09T00:04:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-09T00:04:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/170577\/"},"modified":"2025-11-09T00:04:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-09T00:04:10","slug":"eu-set-to-water-down-landmark-ai-act-after-pressure-from-big-tech-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/170577\/","title":{"rendered":"EU set to water down landmark AI Act after pressure from big tech \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The European Commission<\/a> is proposing a pause to parts of its landmark artificial intelligence<\/a> laws amid intense pressure from big tech companies and the US government.<\/p>\n

Brussels is set to water down part of its digital rule book, including its AI Act, which came into force last year, in a decision on a so-called simplification package on November 19th. The move reflects EU efforts to make the bloc more competitive against the US and China.<\/p>\n

The draft proposal comes amid a broader debate about how aggressively the bloc should enforce its digital rules in the face of a fierce backlash from big tech, supported by US president Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

The bloc has faced fierce pressure from the US government and big tech as well as European groups over the Act, considered the world\u2019s strictest regime regulating the development of the fast-developing technology.<\/p>\n

Fears of provoking Trump into cutting off intelligence or weapon supplies to Ukraine or starting a transatlantic trade war with the bloc saw Brussels agree a provisional trade deal<\/a> in August, but EU officials are wary of any moves that could provoke the White House into retaliatory measures.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Ciara O’Brien: Amazon job cull shows the darker side of artificial intelligenceOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The EU had been \u201cengaging\u201d with the Trump administration on adjustments to the AI Act and other digital regulations as part of its wider simplification process, a senior EU official said.<\/p>\n

While the legislation entered into force in August 2024, many of its provisions only come into effect in coming years. The bulk of the provisions for high-risk AI systems, which can pose \u201cserious risks\u201d to health, safety or citizens\u2019 fundamental rights, are set to come into effect in August 2026.<\/p>\n

In the draft proposal, the commission is considering giving companies breaching the rules on the highest-risk AI use a \u201cgrace period\u201d of one year. The draft proposal was still subject to informal discussions within the commission and with European capitals and it could still change ahead of its adoption on November 19th, officials said.<\/p>\n

\"\"Will Imagine\u2019s big gamble double its customer base?<\/p>\n

This week\u2019s episode of Inside Business sees host Ciar\u00e1n Hancock joined in studio by Niall Tallon, chief executive of Irish telecoms group Imagine. A minor in the Irish market, the company recently made a bold move offering cheap fibre broadband products along with a promise not to increase those prices for the next five years. This is designed to double its customer base by 2030 as part of a multi-million investment in growing the business. It\u2019s a brave strategy given that Imagine has just 35,000 existing customers and big competitors such as Eir, Vodafone, Three and Virgin Media who control a large chunk of the market between them.Niall explains how the offer will work and the business case behind it, as well as discussing the company\u2019s Armenian owners and how he came to run a telco with a chequered history that was originally founded by the late Irish entrepreneur Sean Bolger. Produced by John Casey with JJ Vernon on sound.<\/p>\n

Once the commission puts forward its proposal, it will still have to be approved by a majority of EU countries and the European Parliament.<\/p>\n

Providers of generative AI systems that already placed their systems on the market before the implementation date could thus earn a one-year pause from the laws \u201cto provide sufficient time … to adapt their practices within a reasonable time without disrupting the market\u201d.<\/p>\n

Brussels is also suggesting that it delay imposing fines for violations of its new AI transparency rules until August 2027 to \u201cprovide sufficient time for adaptation of providers and deployers of AI systems\u201d to implement the obligations.<\/p>\n

The draft also looks to make the compliance burden for companies easier and centralise enforcement through its own AI office.<\/p>\n

A number of companies, including Facebook and Instagram owner Meta, have warned that the EU\u2019s approach to regulating AI risks cutting the Continent off from accessing cutting-edge services.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson said talks were ongoing within the commission regarding potential delays to \u201cthe implementation of targeted parts of the AI Act\u201d\u2009and that \u201cvarious options are being considered\u201d. The spokesperson added the bloc remained \u201cfully behind the AI Act and its objectives\u201d. \u2013 Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2025<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The European Commission is proposing a pause to parts of its landmark artificial intelligence laws amid intense pressure…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":170578,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[289,79,356,18,4893,5766,19,17,6221],"class_list":{"0":"post-170577","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-artificial-intelligence","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-donald-trump","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-eu","13":"tag-european-commission","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland","16":"tag-trump-presidency"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115516818358006404","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170577"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170577\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/170578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}