Over a hundred companies have become the first signatories of the EU artificial intelligence (AI) Pact and its voluntary pledges, the European Commission announced Wednesday.
The signatories include multinational corporations and European small and medium enterprises (SMEs) from diverse sectors which include IT, telecoms, healthcare, banking, automotive, and aeronautics. The Pact supports industry’s voluntary commitments to start applying the principles of the AI Act ahead of its entry into application and enhances engagement between the EU AI Office and all relevant stakeholders, including industry, civil society and academia.
The EU AI Pact voluntary pledges call on participating companies to commit to at least three core actions:
- AI governance strategy to foster the uptake of AI in the organisation and work towards future compliance with the AI Act.
- High-risk AI systems mapping: Identifying AI systems likely to be categorised as high-risk under the AI Act
- Promoting AI literacy and awareness among staff, ensuring ethical and responsible AI development.
More than half of the signatories have also committed to additional pledges, including ensuring human oversight, mitigating risks, and transparently labelling certain types of AI-generated content, such as deepfakes.
Companies are welcome to join the AI Pact and commit to the core and the additional pledges at any moment until the AI Act fully applies. The Commission is to set up a European AI Research Council to exploit the potential of data, and the Apply AI Strategy to boost new industrial uses of AI.
