A key committee of lawmakers in the European Parliament have approved a first-of-its-kind artificial intelligence regulation — making it closer to becoming law. The approval marks a landmark development in the race among authorities to get a handle on AI, which is evolving with breakneck speed. The law, known as the European AI Act, is the first law for AI systems in the West. China has already developed draft rules designed to manage how companies develop generative AI products like ChatGPT.
The AI Act categorizes applications of AI into four levels of risk: unacceptable risk, high risk, limited risk and minimal or no risk. Unacceptable risk applications are banned by default and cannot be deployed in the bloc. They include AI systems using subliminal techniques, or manipulative or deceptive techniques to distort behavior; AI systems exploiting vulnerabilities of individuals or specific groups; biometric categorization systems based on sensitive attributes or characteristics; AI systems used for social scoring or evaluating trustworthiness; AI systems used for risk assessments predicting criminal or administrative offenses; AI systems creating or expanding facial recognition databases through untargeted scraping; and AI systems inferring emotions in law enforcement, border management, the workplace, and education.
The rules also specify requirements for providers of so-called “foundation models” such as ChatGPT, which have become a key concern for regulators given how advanced they’re becoming and fears that even skilled workers will be displaced. Developers of foundation models will be required to apply safety checks, data governance measures and risk mitigations before making their models public. They will also be required to ensure that the training data used to inform their systems do not violate copyright law.
“The providers of such AI models would be required to take measures to assess and mitigate risks to fundamental rights, health and safety and the environment, democracy and rule of law,” Ceyhun Pehlivan, counsel at Linklaters and co-lead of the law firm’s telecommunications, media and technology and IP practice group in Madrid told CNBC. “They would also be subject to data governance requirements such as examining the suitability of the data sources and possible biases.” It’s important to stress that while the law has been passed by lawmakers in the European Parliament, it’s a ways away from becoming law.
Comments