A European Union initiative to speed up measures to control artificial intelligence got off to a rocky start on Wednesday as technology giants Meta and Apple passed up on joining the pledge. The EU's Artificial Intelligence Pact lists non-binding commitments that preempt some of the binding rules that industries will face under the bloc's AI Act in coming years.

Meta Platforms will not immediately join the European Union's AI Pact, a company spokesperson said on Tuesday. The pact is a temporary measure before the bloc's AI Act comes into full effect. EU lawmakers in May agreed to the act, the first-of-a-kind rules governing the development and deployment of artificial intelligence.

The AI Act, which was agreed upon by EU lawmakers in May, is set to be the first comprehensive regulation governing AI. It requires companies to provide detailed summaries of the data used to train th

Facebook-parent Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) will not immediately join the EU's AI agreement, and is currently focusing on compliance work for the new law, the company said in a statement to Seeking Alpha.

Last week, a group of technology companies wrote an open letter to European Union leaders urging the continent to fix its “inconsistent regulatory decision making” on artificial intelligence.