Spotify & Meta Love Open-Source AI and the DMA, Wait...
The Economist
This is a strange op-ed on a few fronts. Namely, it's not clear which viewpoints are Daniel Ek's and which are Mark Zuckerberg's.1 I'm sure they'd say they are aligned (in so far as their policy and comms people who actually wrote this are aligned) in all aspects, but that doesn't seem like it's true. After all, the EU's DMA rule, which Ek is a champion of to no end in Spotify's battle against Apple, is also going after Zuckerberg's Meta as a "Gatekeeper" – there's no way they're aligned there, and it's a big elephant in this op-ed room.
It's true that both companies would consider Apple to be enemy #1 to their companies, so they have that in common, I guess. But I'm guessing it's Zuckerberg who cares far more about the "open-source" element of AI here since he has an open-source model he's building in Llama, while Ek does not. On the flip side, Ek undoubtedly cares far more about the European tech landscape than Zuckerberg, as his company is actually a part of that landscape. While I wouldn't be shocked if the EU nonsense eventually forces Meta to pull some products out of the region, or yes, not ship certain things (like their enemy), as they've already threatened with Meta AI.
So is this Ek grabbing Zuckerberg's hand to try to show the EU that he's not so bad? And that they should trust his approach to AI more than those of the closed models? I guess. But again, the message is all sorts of muddled.
Regulating against known harms is necessary, but pre-emptive regulation of theoretical harms for nascent technologies such as open-source AI will stifle innovation. Europe’s risk-averse, complex regulation could prevent it from capitalising on the big bets that can translate into big rewards.
I suppose this element is Ek's attempt to rectify the double-speak I mention above. Regulation is good for "known harms", you see. Like Apple. It's not good for "theoretical harms" like AI. Said another way: regulation for thee, but not for me.
Honestly, I don't even disagree with his latter stance – as I've written about – but this double speak undercuts his point. After all, the EU would say that they should have gotten ahead of regulating Apple before it became a "known harm".
The stark reality is that laws designed to increase European sovereignty and competitiveness are achieving the opposite. This isn’t limited to our industry: many European chief executives, across a range of industries, cite a complex and incoherent regulatory environment as one reason for the continent’s lack of competitiveness.
Yes, agreed. But many would also put the DMA and not just GDPR into this bucket as well. Certainly Apple and yes, Meta! It's a very selective point Ek (Ek's people) is trying to make about just GDPR.
In short, Europe needs a new approach with clearer policies and more consistent enforcement. With the right regulatory environment, combined with the right ambition and some of the world’s top AI talent, the EU would have a real chance of leading the next generation of tech innovation.
Again, agreed. With regard to the DMA too. There's nuance here, of course, as some of the DMA rules have brought about good and needed changes, for example. But the way it's thrown out there for these companies to have to guess what they need to do in order to comply is a joke. As is the arbitrary scope and bounds set up for the rules, which is more or less "Big Tech companies from America".2
By many accounts, Spotify "dominates" the music streaming market, controlling well over half of the European market. But no regulation needed there, because it's a European company.
Anyway, strange piece and bedfellows here. It's almost like Spotify wanted to write this to shake the EU awake but wanted one of the key players in AI to back them up, so they called up Meta.3 But they obviously should have called up Mistral? The French AI company also building open source models?
M.G. Siegler
M.G. Siegler
M.G. Siegler
1 Not helped by the fact that there's sprinkled in usage of "we" and "our" when talking about Spotify -- clearly this is more written by Ek/Ek's people?
2 And sure, throw in one Chinese company, ByteDance, for good measure. Of course, the product that everyone cares about there is TikTok, which will have you know that it's as American as they come! Oh, and Booking. Okay.
3 Obviously this is because Ek and Zuckerberg are longtime close friends.