MEPs question Anthropic’s EU standing, discuss digital sovereignty

Source Domain: iapp.org

Artificial intelligence innovation and digital sovereignty are top of mind for the EU, evidenced by the recent amendments to the AI Act and additional proposed regulations aimed at raising the bloc’s AI profile.

The European Parliament Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection’s 14 July hearing featuring Anthropic captured the balance the EU is still seeking to strike between innovation and safety. MEPs pressed Anthropic Technical Staff Member Donny Greenberg on a range of topics, including the security of its company’s AI products following the recent U.S. decision to drop restrictions on frontier models

The U.S. temporarily restricted access to several of Anthropic’s frontier AI models in June before the Department of Commerce recently lifted restrictions requiring Anthropic to block foreign nationals from its Claude Mythos and Fable AI models after the company worked to address the government’s concerns.

The developments prompted MEPs to question Europe’s reliance on AI systems developed outside of the bloc.

“The past month has made us all acutely aware that the technology we’re creating is bringing with it additional geopolitical complexity,” Greenberg said.

Dutch MEP Dirk Gotink said the U.S. decision to limit the use of Anthropic’s frontier AI models emphasized “once again that maybe that partnership we have from a trans-Atlantic point of view is not as solid as we always expected it.”

“But on a technological front, it is actually quite obvious now, the U.S. is leading AI, and the EU is trying to catch up,” he added.

With lingering questions over the stability of the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework and concerns surrounding the U.S. influence on AI companies’ international deployments, Greenberg said Anthropic will continue to cooperate “with the U.S. government in order to identify a sustainable framework that offers our customers and governments around the world predictably.”

He noted Anthropic “also welcomes our cooperation and constructive…

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