The Commission has published the full list of signatories to the EU’s generative AI Code of Practice initiative so far – aka the Code of Practice for General Purpose AIs (GPAIs).
Signing the Code is not a requirement under the bloc’s AI Act but companies that commit to it voluntarily will be considered compliant with the legally binding rulebook, per the Commission.
Several major AI developers had already made their approach to the Code public in the weeks after publication. But, per the (updatable) list published today, Amazon is also signing, along with a number of smaller AI providers.
Notably absent at the time of writing are any Chinese AI companies, such as Alibaba, Baidu or Deepseek.
It remains to be seen if that will change. But one refusenik is certain: US social media giant Meta previously publicly announced that it would not sign.
Companies that do not sign the Code will still have to follow all the rules of the AI Act. And the Commission has already warned that they may face more scrutiny than those who agree to abide by the Code.
France’s Mistral and Germany’s Aleph Alpha both previously announced they would sign up, as have US-based OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and Microsoft.
Elon Musk’s xAI took a third option by announcing it will only sign the chapter on safety – decrying the rest of the Code as “profoundly detrimental to innovation”. (The Code’s three chapters cover commitments on transparency, copyright, and safety.)
In the end, almost all major AI companies from the US and EU have signed up to the Code. That marks a victory for the Commission – but it will not end discussion about the EU’s approach to regulating artificial intelligence.
Microsoft, for example, pushed for the EU to simplify the AI Act when it announced that it would sign the Code.
The Commission has also previously said its upcoming digital omnibus package will include the AI Act – though not to what extent.
Unsurprisingly, given the sprawling range of interests around AI, the Code itself faced a lengthy and complicated drafting process, with more than a thousand participants involved.
It was only finally presented by the Commission at the beginning of July, more than two months after the original deadline for publication.
The Commission took until today, Friday August 1, to confirm that the Code satisfies its own requirements.
(nl)