The European Parliament has adopted its negotiation position on the AI Act, a significant piece of legislation aimed at regulating artificial intelligence (AI) in Europe.
According to the press release issued by the European Parliament, the AI Act, which received 499 votes in favour, 28 against, and 93 abstentions, is designed to align AI systems with EU rights and values, including principles of human oversight, safety, privacy, transparency, non-discrimination, and social and environmental wellbeing.
The AI Act categorizes AI systems based on the potential level of risk they pose, with certain high-risk systems facing prohibition. This includes systems used for social scoring, which classify individuals based on their social behaviour or personal characteristics. The Parliament has extended the list of prohibited practices to include intrusive and discriminatory uses of AI.
High-risk AI applications now include AI systems used to influence voters and the outcome of elections, and recommender systems used by large social media platforms with over 45 million users.
The Act also imposes obligations on providers of foundation models, a rapidly evolving development in the field of AI. These providers are required to assess and mitigate possible risks and register their models in the EU database before their release on the EU market. Generative AI systems based on such models, like ChatGPT, must comply with transparency requirements and ensure safeguards against generating illegal content.
The Act promotes regulatory sandboxes, real-life environments established by public authorities to test AI before it is deployed. It also strengthens citizens’ rights to file complaints about AI systems and receive explanations of decisions based on high-risk AI systems.
Negotiations with the European Council on the final form of the law will start later today.
#AIAct just voted! ✅👏
— Thierry Breton (@ThierryBreton) June 14, 2023
The EU Parliament becomes the first House in the world voting on a comprehensive #AI regulation!
Today’s vote shows that we can reconcile trust and innovation 🇪🇺 pic.twitter.com/Gc3DhbIbbo
Featured Image Credit: Photo by “Guillaume Périgois” via Unsplash
