Europe wants to lighten AI compliance burden for startups

BRUSSELS, April 8 (Reuters) – The European Commission plans to seek feedback to help lighten the regulatory burden for startups struggling to comply with European Union rules on the use of artificial intelligence, according to a Commission document seen by Reuters.

The move is the latest by the EU executive to water down legislation enacted in recent years following complaints by businesses across Europe about the volume and cost of red tape hampering their operations.

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“There is an opportunity to minimise the potential compliance burden of AI Act, particularly for smaller innovators,” said the document, the AI Continent Action Plan.

“The Commission aims to build on the first learnings from the current implementation phase and identify further measures that are needed to facilitate a smooth and simple application of the AI Act,” it said.

EU tech chief Henna Virkkunen will present the measure on Wednesday.

The AI Act imposes strict transparency obligations on high-risk AI systems, while the requirements for general-purpose AI models are lighter.

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An agenda-setting and market-moving journalist, Foo Yun Chee is a 21-year veteran at Reuters. Her stories on high profile mergers have pushed up the European telecoms index, lifted companies’ shares and helped investors decide on their next move. Her knowledge and experience of European antitrust laws and developments helped her break stories on Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Meta and Apple, numerous market-moving mergers and antitrust investigations. She has previously reported on Greek politics and companies, when Greece’s entry into the eurozone meant it punched above its weight on the international stage, as well as on Dutch corporate giants and the quirks of Dutch society and culture that never fail to charm readers.

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