Lawmakers in the EU are ready to approve extensive regulations on artificial intelligence, including powerful systems like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which is the last major obstacle before formal adoption.
High-ranking officials in the European Union are saying that the regulations, initially suggested in 2021, will safeguard citizens from potential risks while also supporting innovation in the region.
Brussels has been moving quickly to pass the new law since the emergence of OpenAI’s Microsoft-backed ChatGPT in late 2022, sparking a new global race in the field of AI.
There was a surge of excitement for generative AI as ChatGPT was able to generate articulate text rapidly, including poems and essays, as well as pass medical exams.
Other examples of generative AI models include DALL-E and Midjourney, which create images, while other models generate sounds from simple input in everyday language.
“The EU has delivered. No conditions, no delays,” said Dragos Tudorache, the lawmaker who pushed the text through parliament with another MEP, Brando Benifei.
“Europe is now a global benchmark for reliable AI,” said the EU’s internal market commissioner, Thierry Breton.
The 27 states of the EU are expected to support the text in April before the law is published in the EU’s Official Journal in May or June.
The regulations governing AI models like ChatGPT will go into effect 12 months after the law officially takes effect, while companies must comply with most other regulations within two years.
Restrictions on AI in policing –
The EU’s regulations, known as the “AI Act,” take a risk-based approach: the riskier the AI system, the more stringent the requirements.
For instance, providers of high-risk AI must carry out risk assessments and ensure that their products adhere to the law before they are made available to the public.
“We are regulating as minimally as possible and as much as necessary, with appropriate measures for AI models,” Breton told AFP.
Violations can result in companies being fined between 7.5 million to 35 million euros ($8.2 million to $38.2 million), depending on the type of violation and the size of the company.
There are also strict bans on using AI for predictive policing and systems that use biometric information to deduce an individual’s race, religion, or sexual orientation.
The regulations also prohibit real-time facial recognition in public spaces, but there are some exceptions for law enforcement, although the police must still seek approval from a judicial authority before deploying any AI.
Interest groups vs. oversight bodies
Since AI is likely to transform every aspect of Europeans’ lives and major tech companies are competing for dominance in what will be a profitable market, many stakeholders have lobbied the EU.
Oversight bodies on Tuesday highlighted the lobbying efforts of French AI startup Mistral AI and Germany’s Aleph Alpha, as well as tech giants based in the US like Google and Microsoft.
They cautioned that the implementation of the new regulations “could be further weakened by corporate lobbying,” and added that research showed “just how influential corporate influence” was during negotiations.
“Many specifics of the AI Act are still open and need to be clarified in numerous implementing measures, for example, in terms of standards, thresholds, or transparency obligations,” three oversight bodies based in Belgium, France, and Germany said.
Commissioner Breton emphasized that the EU resisted the pressure from special interests and lobbyists who wanted to exclude large AI models from the regulation. He added that the result is a well-balanced, risk-based, and future-proof regulation.
However, the main tech lobbying groups, CCIA, have cautioned that many of the new rules are still unclear and could slow down the development and roll-out of innovative AI applications in Europe.
Boniface de Champris of CCIA Europe stated that it will be crucial to properly implement the Act to ensure that AI rules do not overly burden companies in their efforts to innovate and compete in a flourishing, highly dynamic market.
AFP
