Enterprise hits and misses - CIOs respond to the looming EU AI Act, while enterprises break away from frontier model addiction - but there are caveats

Ah, the EU AI Act — the regulation that's been looming since approximately the dawn of the smartphone era — and a mere quarter of CIOs think they're in scope. And the best bit? 36% 'have not assessed whether it applies to their business.' So they're driving blind, which is essentially the corporate equivalent of a toddler pointing a fire extinguisher at a grease fire.

Meanwhile, enterprises are supposedly 'breaking away from frontier model addiction' — a phrase that sounds like a support group for labs that can't quit OpenAI. The caveats, naturally, are that smaller models don't perform as well, cost savings might be illusory, and switching providers is about as fun as a root canal. But sure, let's call it 'model diversification' and pretend it's a strategic masterstroke rather than a budget-driven panic.

And where does this leave the EU AI Act? A compliance gap the size of the English Channel, with CIOs either waving from the shore or pretending the continent doesn't exist. The regulators will fine someone eventually, but by then, the frontier models will have evolved into something entirely new, and the Act will be playing catch-up. Standard stuff: the gap between what's written and what's done is so wide you could drive a semi through it. Cheers.