EU flag and Meta logo are seen in this illustration taken, May 22, 2023. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
(Reuters) - Meta Platforms will not immediately join the European Union's AI Pact, a company spokesperson said on Tuesday.
The pact is a temporary measure before the bloc's AI Act comes into full effect.
EU lawmakers in May agreed to the act, the first-of-a-kind rules governing the development and deployment of artificial intelligence.
The AI Act entails that companies will be obliged to provide detailed summaries of the data used to train their artificial intelligence models.
Last month, the European Commission said the majority of rules of the act will start applying on Aug. 2, 2026.
Until the law kicks in, companies are encouraged to sign up to a voluntary AI Pact to implement key obligations of the rules.
"We welcome harmonised EU rules and are focusing on our compliance work under the AI Act at this time," the Meta spokesperson said, adding that the Facebook parent could join the AI Pact at a later stage.
The AI Act is the fifth pillar of EU legislation and would work in conjunction with the Digital Markets Act, Digital Services Act, Data Governance Act, and Data Act.
(Reporting by Harshita Mary Varghese in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)
