Tech CEOs are riding the AI hype by pocketing billions through circular deals — and the European Commission is fueling the hype. When the bubble bursts, CEOs may lose investors, but the commission will have wasted public funds and shattered public trust.
In the budget speech this year, commission president Ursula von der Leyen made a bold statement that AI is expected to approach human reasoning by next year.
Surprised by this statement, I asked the commission to provide me with documents that substantiate this statement. After more than four months, and only after the European Ombudsman intervened, the Brussels-executive responded.
The commission’s response was not filled with references to the scientific literature. Instead, the Commission referred to the essays and books by tech CEOs.
Scientists and scholars working on various aspects of AI are appalled that the European Commission has fallen prey to this hype theatre and have written a letter to the President raising concerns.
Leaders of EU institutions parroting the marketing language of CEOs who are in the midst of a dangerous bubble that they have created, send out the wrong signal to citizens and the scientific community.
The commission risks gambling public funds and ceding power to conmen based on its lack of scientific understanding.
Billionaires and CEOs profit from ideology-driven unscientific claims around “AGI” (Artificial general intelligence) and “superintelligence” — a term which has no scientific consensus.
Statements such as AI approaching “human reasoning” lack scientific grounding and reflect an impoverished understanding of human beings.
But the hype and the pursuit of scale and efficiency around disputed claims of productivity growth are not without costs and harms borne by citizens.
Citizens already face discrimination, privacy-violations, and psychological harms in addition to societal harms on the economy, and the environment. At the same time, the EU allows companies to exploit workers, impose AI on people, and steal the works of artists and authors.
Despite the documented harms of AI that need to be addressed, the EU AI Office within the European Commission told the EU AI Board in the recent meeting how it seriously considers “AGI.”
The Commission also notes that “frontier models tried to use blackmail” and deception. This is anthropomorphism.
In the US, lawsuits filed against OpenAI claim that the company “knowingly released models” and curtailed “safety testing” of AI products that manipulate people and drove them to suicide. The Commission anthropomorphises AI and relieves AI developers from their responsibility.
Riding on the AI hype, the EU is also dismantling the rights of its people. Just as president von der Leyen hypes AI, the EU has hyped its own digital rules for far too long without delivering on them through enforcement.
Instead of correcting course, the recently leaked Omnibus documents indicate that the Commission plans to fulfil the wish list of Big Tech.
A proposed change in the general data protection regulation (GDPR) would give AI companies a free pass to exploit personal data to train AI models and AI systems based on “legitimate interest”, without the consent of people.
Meta has previously argued that processing personal data of people without their consent is necessary for AI training, which, as Max Schrems says, is “laughable.”
The EU, instead of acting against Meta’s practices, is going to change the rules to grant Meta its wish.
Similarly, the EU has taken no action on BigTech forcing generative AI into products. In contrast, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has sued Microsoft for dumping generative AI on people, deliberately hiding subscription options and raising costs.
European institutions are complicit in AI harms by using products from these exploitative companies, inadequately enforcing EU digital rules and dismantling the current protections offered by the EU’s digital rule book. The EU should instead uphold its values to hold companies accountable.
This will not be possible unless the EU stops normalising AI hype. As a start, the president of the European Commission should retract her unscientific statement and rely on impartial scientific advice in the future, as our letter urges.
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Kris Shrishak is a senior fellow at Enforce, and a public interest technologist. His work focuses on privacy tech, anti-surveillance, emerging technologies, and algorithmic decision-making.
Kris Shrishak is a senior fellow at Enforce, and a public interest technologist. His work focuses on privacy tech, anti-surveillance, emerging technologies, and algorithmic decision-making.