Forty-two German trade unions and associations representing more than 140,000 authors and performers have urged the European Union to strengthen draft AI rules due to concerns about generative AI, such as ChatGPT. In a letter to the European Commission, European Council, and EU lawmakers, the unions called for the regulation of generative AI across the entire product cycle, and for providers of such technology to be held liable for all content generated and disseminated by the AI, especially for infringement of personal rights and copyrights, misinformation or discrimination.

The letter also highlighted the need to address questions of accountability, liability, and remuneration before irreversible harm occurs, and called for generative AI to be at the centre of any meaningful AI market regulation. The letter said providers of foundation models such as Microsoft, Alphabet’s Google, Amazon and Meta Platforms should not be allowed to operate central platform services to distribute digital content.

In a similar vain, a group of 12 European Union lawmakers working on legislation related to AI have called for a summit to discuss ways to control the development of advanced AI systems, stating that they were evolving faster than expected. 

The European Commission will finalise the details of AI rules over the coming months before they become legislation. The political agreement on the AI Act will be voted on by leading European Parliament committees on 26 April. One of the primary topics under discussion among parliamentarians is whether to include general-purpose AI systems in the Act.