Tech industry groups ask to extend deadline to contribute to general purpose AI Code of Practice

A group of 11 tech industry associations have asked the European Commission to extend the September deadline for submitting views on a Code of Practice on general-purpose artificial intelligence (GPAI), according to a Thursday (8 August) letter.

The code is key to implementing the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Act, the EU’s landmark regulation. Requirements for GPAI, which includes tools like ChatGPT, will apply from August 2025. Until harmonised standards are finalised, companies can use the code to demonstrate compliance.

The open multi-stakeholder consultation, launched on 30 July, is the primary way in which firms not directly involved in drafting the code can express their views. Their feedback will be used to create the first draft of the code, to be presented at a meeting in September, which will then be iterated upon over several months.

The industry associations say the six-week time frame for the multi-stakeholder consultation in the middle of summer “limits” their ability to “provide meaningful contributions,” and are therefore asking for at least a two-week extension.

The 11 groups represent a wide range of companies from the EU and US, from Big Tech to startups.

The Commission is on a tight schedule to produce the various guidelines and codes of practice for the AI Act, which will be applied fully two years after it came into force on 1 August.

The GPAI code of practice has been a thorny issue, as it will determine compliance for some of the most powerful AI models, and because civil society was concerned that industry would be allowed to draft its own rules.

On 30 July, the Commission said civil society and academia would be included in a “plenary” that would be consulted during the code’s drafting. However, GPAI developers would be exclusively invited to “workshops” with those actually drafting the codes, the chairs and vice chairs of the working groups.

Those wishing to directly participate in the drafting of the codes have an even tighter schedule to express their interest, with the deadline set on 25 August.

The industry associations that are calling for an extension are: startup group Allied for Startups; the American Chamber of Commerce to the European Union (AmCham EU); the European Internet Services Providers Association; Italy’s IT association Anitec-Assinform.

Signatories include industry associations for Big Tech firms in France, Germany, Poland, and Brussels, representing companies like Google, Meta, Oracle, Amazon, Microsoft, and Samsung.

Specifically, these signatories are France’s Association des services Internet communautaires (ASIC), Germany’s Bundesverband Digitale Wirtschaft, Poland’s Związek Cyfrowa Polska, Brussels-based DOT Europe, and three tech advocacy groups headquartered in Washington DC with offices in Brussels: BSA-Software Alliance, the Computer & Communications Industry Association, and the Information Technology Industry Council.

Inside the EU Commission’s rush to build codes of practice for general purpose AI

Providers of general purpose AI, like ChatGPT, will be in the driver’s seat when drafting codes of practice that they can later use to demonstrate compliance with the AI Act.