The European authorities have issued a legal binding request to the company Microsoft to obtain more information about the benefits of generative smart technology in the Bing search engine.
The European Commission, the executive body of the European Union, announced this step. The software giant was given a deadline until May 27 to provide the required information.
Failing to do so may lead to significant financial penalties that could be substantial.
This request is part of the efforts made by the European Commission to ensure that major technology companies comply with the Digital Services Act.
Major online platform operators must monitor and mitigate several types of risks in their services, including risks related to traditional artificial intelligence.
In March, the European Union requested companies like Microsoft, Google, Meta, and other technology companies to provide information on the benefits of artificial intelligent technology.
The purpose of the requests was to assist officials in determining whether companies are complying with the provisions of the Digital Services Act related to reducing risks faced by users.
The second request for information from the European Union to Microsoft has now been issued due to the technology giant’s inability to provide some internal documents and data in its initial response.
The European Union can impose fines of up to 1% of a company’s annual worldwide revenue if inaccurate, incomplete, or misleading records are submitted in response to the information request.
If Microsoft does not disclose the data requested by officials before the final deadline on March 27, they may face additional penalties.
Failing to provide the required information may result in the company being burdened with fines up to 1% of its annual revenue globally, in addition to periodic fines.
The new request focuses on obtaining information on two features offered by Microsoft as part of the Bing search engine.
The first feature of the chatbot involves using artificial intelligence in Copilot, which is based on the GPT-4 massive language model. While the second feature relates to the Image Creator by Designer image generation model.
The European Union believes that using these specific features in the Bing search engine may violate the Digital Services Act due to potential risks associated with artificial intelligence.
The risks identified by officials include the potential exploitation of features to spread manipulation and forgery, which could mislead voters.
The use of artificial intelligence technology and the dissemination of false or misleading information causes concern for the European Union.
Microsoft has stated that it is fully cooperating with the European Commission in providing information voluntarily, commits to responding to their inquiries, and sharing more information about its approach to digital safety.
