Aiman Ezzat, CEO of Capgemini, expressed concerns that the European Union has overreached with its artificial intelligence regulations, making it more challenging for global companies to deploy AI in the region. In an interview, Ezzat highlighted the difficulties businesses face as they navigate different AI laws across multiple countries. His remarks come ahead of the AI Action Summit in Paris and amidst growing frustration from the private sector regarding AI regulations.
The EU’s AI Act, which is touted as the world’s most comprehensive AI law, has been criticized by some companies for stifling innovation. Ezzat commented, “In Europe, we went too far and too fast on AI regulation,” emphasizing that the absence of global AI standards has made the regulatory landscape increasingly complex.
Capgemini, one of Europe’s largest IT services firms, partners with major companies like Microsoft, Google Cloud, and Amazon Web Services (AWS), and serves clients such as Heathrow Airport and Deutsche Telekom. At the upcoming summit in Paris, AI policy frameworks are expected to be discussed, and Ezzat anticipates efforts to align global policy on AI.
While the AI Act won’t be fully implemented for several years, concerns have already arisen regarding privacy law violations by AI actors. Several European data protection authorities are reviewing DeepSeek, a Chinese startup that has drawn attention for its ability to compete with U.S. companies at a fraction of the cost. Despite DeepSeek’s open-source model, Ezzat noted its transparency limitations, such as the lack of access to the datasets used to train the models.
Capgemini is in the early stages of exploring the integration of DeepSeek’s models with clients, according to Ezzat.