EU lawmakers pass landmark artificial intelligence regulation

On June 14, European Union lawmakers passed the artificial intelligence rules known as EU AI Act. The EU wants to regulate artificial intelligence (AI) to ensure better conditions for developing and using this innovative technology. This landmark act was passed with 499 votes in favour.

AI can create many benefits, such as better healthcare; safer and cleaner transport; more efficient manufacturing; and cheaper and more sustainable energy. But this emerging technology has raised concerns all around the world and demanded its regulation.

Before sending the newly proposed draft to the member nations, the MEPs (Members of the European Parliament) ensured that “AI developed and used in Europe is fully in line with EU rights and values including human oversight, safety, privacy, transparency, non-discrimination and social and environmental wellbeing”.

EU lawmakers assured that “The rules follow a risk-based approach and establish obligations for providers and those deploying AI systems depending on the level of risk the AI can generate. AI systems with an unacceptable level of risk to people’s safety would therefore be prohibited, such as those used for social scoring (classifying people based on their social behaviour or personal characteristics)”. MEPs added to the list by prohibiting the following types of intrusive and discriminatory uses of AI:

• “Real-time remote biometric identification systems in publicly accessible spaces.
• Post remote biometric identification systems, with the only exception of law enforcement for the prosecution of serious crimes and only after judicial authorisation.
• Biometric categorisation systems using sensitive characteristics (e.g. gender, race, ethnicity, citizenship status, religion, political orientation).
• Predictive policing systems (based on profiling, location or past criminal behaviour).
• Emotion recognition systems in law enforcement, border management, the workplace, and educational institutions.
• Untargeted scraping of facial images from the internet or CCTV footage to create facial recognition databases (violating human rights and right to privacy)”.

MEPs made sure, “The classification of high-risk applications will now include AI systems that pose significant harm to people’s health, safety, fundamental rights or the environment. AI systems used to influence voters, and the outcome of elections and in recommender systems used by social media platforms (with over 45 million users) were added to the high-risk list”.

A new and fast-evolving development in the field of AI “foundation models” must be registered by the providers of these models in the EU database before their release on the EU market. This registration would provide “Safeguards against generating illegal content. Detailed summaries of the copyrighted data used for their training would also have to be made publicly available”.

MEPs added, “Exemptions for research activities and AI components provided under open-source licenses to boost AI innovation and support SMEs”. The new law would encourage “regulatory sandboxes, or real-life environments, established by public authorities to test AI before it is deployed”.

Through these laws, MEPs want to facilitate “Citizens’ right to file complaints about AI systems and receive explanations of decisions based on high-risk AI systems that significantly impact their fundamental rights”. MEPs also improved the role of the EU AI Office, which would monitor the implementation of the AI rulebook.

The co-rapporteur Brando Benifei from Italy stated, “All eyes are on us today. While Big Tech companies are sounding the alarm over their own creations, Europe has gone ahead and proposed a concrete response to the risks AI is starting to pose. We want AI’s positive potential for creativity and productivity to be harnessed but we will also fight to protect our position and counter dangers to our democracies and freedoms during the negotiations with Council”.

Another co-rapporteur, Dragos Tudorache from Romania, stated, “The AI Act will set the tone worldwide in the development and governance of artificial intelligence, ensuring that this technology, set to radically transform our societies through the massive benefits it can offer, evolves and is used in accordance with the European values of democracy, fundamental rights, and the rule of law”.

Recently on June 12, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres endorsed a proposal by some executives working in artificial intelligence (AI) to establish an international agency to monitor AI akin to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

While talking to the media, Guterres states, “Alarm bells over the latest form of artificial intelligence – generative AI – are deafening. And they are loudest from the developers who designed it”. He added, “We must take those warnings seriously”.

Guterres has stated that by the end of the year, he intends to begin work on developing a high-level AI advisory group. This group will be responsible for reviewing AI governance arrangements on a regular basis and making recommendations on how to make them more in line with human rights, the rule of law, and the common good.