TapTechNews May 17th news, the European Union is still seeking more information about some of Microsoft's generative artificial intelligence tools and services. The European Commission, the EU's regulatory body, today demanded that Microsoft submit relevant information by May 27th.
The European Commission said in today's press release that they had earlier this year asked Microsoft for information about 'Copilot in Bing' and 'Image Creator by Designer' to assess whether these services violated the EU's Digital Services Act. The European Commission said that Microsoft has not provided the relevant information and has now set a new deadline for it. The statement added:
This information request is based on the following suspicions: The Bing search engine may violate the Digital Services Act due to the risks brought by generative artificial intelligence (such as 'hallucination content', the viral spread of deepfake content, and the manipulation of services to mislead voters). According to the Digital Services Act, designated services (including Bing) must conduct sufficient risk assessments and take corresponding risk mitigation measures.
The European Commission also added that the use of generative artificial intelligence is particularly worrying this year as it may be used to influence the European Parliament elections in June.
If Microsoft does not provide the requested information about its generative artificial intelligence tools to the European Commission by May 27th, the regulator may fine the company, and the total fine may be up to 1% of Microsoft's annual total revenue. If Microsoft submits 'incorrect, incomplete or misleading information' to the European Commission, it may also be fined the same amount.
TapTechNews noted that in December 2023, the European Commission officially launched an investigation into Company X (formerly known as Twitter) to assess whether the social network violated the Digital Services Act. In April this year, the European Commission also launched an investigation into TikTok to assess whether its launch of TikTok Lite in France and Spain violated the Digital Services Act.