On August 2, a new part of the European AI legislation (‘AI Act’) will come into force, with rules for AI models for general purposes. The EU also established an AI code of conduct with non-binding guidelines for the implementation of the new rules. This still needed to be approved within the ‘AI Board’, with representatives from the member states.
Belgium voted against it because the document offers too few guarantees for the protection of copyright. These are protected within the EU not only through the AI Act, but the stronger the commitments within the code of conduct, the stronger the authors are, according to Belgium.
During the discussions, it did provide comments to raise the ambition level, such as simplifying the exercise of the opt-out clause for rights holders, guarantees regarding fair compensation, and exclusion of searches on websites that distribute illegal content, even if there is no commercial purpose. Despite improvements compared to the original document, the text remains insufficient for Brussels.
“Belgium and other European countries have emphasized that this is not the end of a process, and the Commission has acknowledged that an evaluation and amendment of the code may need to take place sooner than legally provided,” said Minister Matz. “I will continue to work with the relevant services to ensure that AI models adequately consider the interests of journalists, publishers, producers, and creators.”
According to the European Commission’s website, 26 companies have already signed the code of conduct, including Google, Microsoft, and the company behind Chat GPT, Open AI.
