Early sign-ups to EU’s AI Pact include Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI — but Apple and Meta are missing

The European Commission has revealed a list of the first 100-plus signatories to the AI Pact — an initiative focused on getting companies to publish “voluntary pledges” on how they approach and deploy artificial intelligence.

While the bloc’s legally binding risk-based AI rulebook (the AI Act) entered into force last month, it will be several years before all its compliance deadlines are in operation. That creates a vacuum of non-compliance that the EU is keen to plug with the AI Pact.

The effort is intended to boost engagement and foster commitments so companies get on the front-foot by taking steps to implement the law’s requirements ahead of the deadlines. The Pact also focuses on fostering info-sharing so signatories can help each other respond to the incoming requirements of the bloc’s AI rulebook and proactively develop best practices.

Beyond that, there’s a long-list of potential pledges (available here in PDF form) that the Commission says was drafted by the AI Office, the body overseeing the AI Act, before being filtered after feedback from “relevant stakeholders” in the AI Pact network. The resulting pledge list allows for signatories to, essentially, pick and mix which commitments work for them.

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