EU Unveils Draft AI Code of Practice Focusing on Copyright and Safety for Companies

The European Commission revealed a draft code of practice on Thursday aimed at helping companies comply with the European Union’s evolving artificial intelligence regulations. The voluntary code emphasizes safeguarding copyright-protected content and implementing measures to reduce systemic risks linked to AI technologies.

Developed by 13 independent experts, the code is part of the broader EU AI regulatory framework. While signing up is optional, companies that do not join will miss out on the legal certainty offered to adherents. The rules will apply to major AI providers including Alphabet (Google), Meta (Facebook), OpenAI, Anthropic, Mistral, and others.

Under the code, signatories must publish summaries detailing the data sources used to train their general-purpose AI models. They are required to ensure that copyright-protected materials are only used appropriately, especially when employing web crawlers, and must take steps to prevent outputs that infringe copyright.

To address systemic risks, companies will also need to establish frameworks to identify and analyze potential hazards. While transparency and copyright guidelines apply to all general-purpose AI providers, specific safety and security provisions target providers of advanced models like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Meta’s Llama, Google’s Gemini, and Anthropic’s Claude.

The EU’s AI Act, effective since last June, imposes strict transparency rules on high-risk AI systems and lighter obligations for general-purpose AI models. It also regulates AI use in military, crime, and security contexts. The new AI rules for large language models will become legally binding on August 2, with enforcement beginning a year later for new models. Existing models will have until August 2, 2027, to comply.

Henna Virkkunen, the EU’s technology commissioner, encouraged AI stakeholders to adopt the code, highlighting its collaborative design and its role in simplifying compliance with the EU AI Act. The code’s final approval by EU member states and the Commission is expected by the end of the year.