The European Commission on Friday issued a legally binding information request to Microsoft, urging the tech giant to provide more information regarding its generative artificial intelligence technology used in the Bing search engine.
Generative artificial intelligence is identified by the European Commission as one of the risks affecting the fairness of electoral processes, especially with the upcoming European Parliament elections in June. The commission is concerned that AI technology could be utilized to manipulate elections.
The reason behind the Commission’s request for information from Bing is due to suspicions that Bing may have violated provisions of the Digital Services Act, posing risks related to generative artificial intelligence such as deepfake viral dissemination and potential manipulation of automated services that could mislead voters, including manipulation of recommendation systems, fake account operations, and dissemination of false information.
The European Commission stated that if Microsoft fails to provide sufficient information regarding the risks posed by generative AI technology in Bing by May 27, the Commission may impose fines on the company.
Following a previous inquiry on March 14 regarding Bing’s generative AI features, particularly the Copilot chatbot and Image Creator AI design tools, the Commission stated that enforcement actions on the matter are being strengthened.
The Commission has requested Bing to provide internal documents and data that were not disclosed in previous responses.
If no response is received by the deadline, the Commission may impose fines on Bing up to 1% of its annual revenue and periodic fines up to 5% of its daily revenue.
If the company provides false or misleading information, the Commission may impose fines of up to 1% of its annual total revenue or global turnover.
Under the landmark Digital Services Act implemented by the EU last year, tech companies are obligated to take more measures to address illegal and harmful content on their platforms. The Commission highlighted that after being designated as a “Very Large Online Search Engine,” Bing must comply with the full set of regulations introduced by the Digital Services Act.
The Commission emphasized that the request for information is part of an investigative process, and further actions will be taken based on an evaluation of Microsoft’s responses.