KEY FACT: The European Union Parliament has approved the world's first comprehensive Artificial Intelligence (AI) regulations, targeted at the safety of users and ethical AI development, going forward in the European Union.
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World’s First Comprehensive AI Act Passed by EU Parliament
The European Union Parliament approved the world's first comprehensive Artificial Intelligence (AI) Act to ensure the safety of users and enforce developers' compliance with fundamental rights while boosting innovation. The Act was passed on Wednesday, March 13, 2024, in legislation endorsed by a vote of 523 in favor. There were 46 votes against and 49 abstentions. The bill will go to a second vote in April and be published in the Official Journal of the European Union, likely in May.
According to the announcement, the AI act will safeguard general-purpose artificial intelligence innovations and utilization, limit the use of biometric identification systems by law enforcement, ban social scoring and AI used to manipulate or exploit user vulnerabilities and emphasize the rights of consumers to launch complaints and receive meaningful explanations.
The EU Parliament’s website also emphasized that the EU AI Act will govern the bloc of 27 member states to ensure that “AI is trustworthy, safe and respects EU fundamental rights while supporting innovation”.
In response, EU Parliament members Brando Benifei and Dragos Tudorache spoke to the press, calling it a “historic day on our long path to regulation of AI.” According to Benifei, the final result of the legislation will help create “safe and human-centric AI” with a test that “reflects the EU parliament priorities.”
Benifei furthered that the AI legislation was first proposed in 2019 and started picking up speed over the last year as powerful AI models began to be developed and deployed for mass use. It is reported that Parliament reached a provisional agreement after “long negotiations” in December 2023, and then the Internal Market and Civil Liberties Committees voted 71-8 to endorse the provisional agreement on Feb. 13.
On his part, Tudorache mentioned that the successful AI legislation points towards AI governance in the future.
“As a Union, we have given a signal to the whole world that we take this very seriously… Now we have to be open to work with others… we have to be open to build [AI] governance with as many like-minded democracies.”
What will Change?
The EU AI Act places machine learning models into four categories based on the risk they pose to society. They are unacceptable risk, high risk, limited risk, and minimal risk.
According to the EU’s website, AI models in the “unacceptable risk” category are considered a clear threat to the safety, livelihoods, and rights of people and are banned. The ban covers AI models for social scoring by governments to toys using voice assistance that encourages dangerous behavior. An example of this would include the use of AI-powered remote biometric identification systems to scan faces in public by local authorities.
The use of AI chatbots such as ChatGPT, Grok, and Gemini, for conversations and AI-generated content was included in the “Limited risk” category. AI applications such as AI-enabled video games or spam filters are listed in the “minimal-risk” category and labeled “free use” AI. The EU has created a tool called “The EU AI Act Compliance Checker,” which allows organizations to see where they fall within the legislation.
The approved EU AI Act seems to have gained the acceptance of tech companies who earlier backlashed the EU Parliament against over-regulation of emerging AI technologies at the cost of innovation. Christina Montgomery, Vice President and Chief Privacy and Trust Officer of IBM has praised the EU Parliament following the AI Act approval. She said:
“I commend the EU for its leadership in passing comprehensive, smart AI legislation. The risk-based approach aligns with IBM's commitment to ethical AI practices and will contribute to building open and trustworthy AI ecosystems.” - Source.
With this EU legislation we're enroute to engaging with more responsive AI systems.
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