EU officials have agreed to water down certain aspects of the AI Act, including delaying the implementation of rules covering a number of high-risk applications until December 2027, instead of the originally set deadline of August 2026, according to the latest update of EU lawmakers watering down AI rules. This agreement comes after many companies argued the EU was bogging itself down in unnecessary regulation, leaving the EU behind competitors in the US and Asia. The deal was reached after 9 hours of talks, which is fairly standard for negotiations in Brussels. It still needs to be ratified by EU […]
Partnership between top startup DeepL and Amazon comes amid concern about Silicon Valley’s monopoly over digital infrastructure
AI companies in Europe risk losing their world-leading status in the field of machine translation, industry figures have said, after the decision by one of the continent’s leading startups to partner with Amazon’s cloud computing division provoked alarm.
While businesses in the EU have generally lagged behind the US and China in AI adoption, a small group of European companies have cornered the global market for high-quality machine translations for professional use.
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EU member states and the European Parliament failed to agree on changes that would have softened the bloc’s AI Act and pushed back its toughest enforcement deadlines.
The talks ran for about 12 hours on Tuesday and ended without an agreement, Reuters reported, citing a Cypriot official who said it had not been possible to reach a deal with Parliament. Cyprus holds the rotating presidency of the EU Council, which negotiates on behalf of member states. According to the report, the talks broke down over the insistence by some member states and lawmakers that industries already covered by sectoral safety rules be left out of the AI legislation.
Tuesday’s session was the last political trilogue on the Digital Omnibus on AI scheduled before formal adoption, according to the European Parliament’s legislative tracker. Talks will resume in May, and if no deal is reached before August 2, the AI Act’s high-risk obligations will apply that day as originally drafted.
The European Parliament’s co-ra
Two of Silicon Valley's best known tech moguls, Elon Musk and Sam Altman, are going to face off each other in court with the trial getting underway with jury selection on Monday. The lawsuit is brought by Musk, who accuses Altman of fraud and is seeking more than $130 billion in damages, for 'betraying' the AI startup's founding mission of being non-profit. Plus, labelling rules on honey jars are set to toughen from mid-June in France, taking a new EU indication of origin rule into effect.
Exclusive: Mayor raises concerns about using public money to support firms who act ‘contrary to London’s values’
Sadiq Khan may oppose Scotland Yard using Palantir’s AI systems to process criminal intelligence because of his “concerns about using public money to support firms who act contrary to London’s values”.
The mayor of London’s office made the statement after the Guardian revealed last week that Palantir, which works for Donald Trump’s ICE immigration crackdown and Israel’s military, has held talks with the Metropolitan police over a wide-ranging contract that could run into tens of millions of pounds.
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The EU’s 20th sanctions package includes transaction bans on 20 Russian banks and four financial institutions in third countries linked to sanctions circumvention. For the first time, the bloc has imposed a sector-wide ban on Russian crypto service providers and platforms, while also prohibiting transactions involving RUBx and support for the digital rouble. The European [...]
