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Meta has refused to sign the European Union\u2019s code of practice<\/a> for its AI Act, weeks before the bloc\u2019s rules for providers of general-purpose AI models take effect.<\/p>\n \u201cEurope is heading down the wrong path on AI,\u201d wrote Meta\u2019s chief global affairs officer Joel Kaplan in a post<\/a> on LinkedIn. \u201cWe have carefully reviewed the European Commission\u2019s Code of Practice for general-purpose AI (GPAI) models and Meta won\u2019t be signing it. This Code introduces a number of legal uncertainties for model developers, as well as measures which go far beyond the scope of the AI Act.\u201d<\/p>\n The EU\u2019s code of practice \u2014 a voluntary framework published earlier this month \u2014 aims to help companies implement processes and systems to comply with the bloc\u2019s legislation for regulating AI. Among other things, the code requires companies to provide and regularly update documentation about their AI tools and services; bans developers from training AI on pirated content; and comply with content owners\u2019 requests to not use their works in their data sets.<\/p>\n Calling the EU\u2019s implementation of the legislation \u201cover-reach,\u201d Kaplan claimed that the law will \u201cthrottle the development and deployment of frontier AI models in Europe, and stunt European companies looking to build businesses on top of them.\u201d<\/p>\n A risk-based regulation for applications of artificial intelligence<\/a>, the AI Act bans some \u201cunacceptable risk\u201d use cases outright, such as cognitive behavioral manipulation or social scoring. The rules also define a set of \u201chigh-risk\u201d uses, such as biometrics and facial recognition, and in domains like education and employment. The act also requires developers to register AI systems and meet risk and quality management obligations.<\/p>\n Tech companies from across the world, including those at the forefront of the AI race like Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft and Mistral AI have been fighting<\/a> the rules, even urging the European Commission to delay its roll out. But the Commission has held firm<\/a>, saying it will not change its timeline.<\/p>\n