“THE FIRST EVER AI ACT”. AFTER SEVERAL YEARS, EU MEMBER STATES AGREE

After two years of negotiations, the European Union agreed on a regulatory framework for artificial intelligence on Friday. Member states are taking this step in response to the popularity of tools such as ChatGPT, which carry both risks and benefits.

On Friday, EU member states finally agreed and approved new laws governing the safety and use of artificial intelligence (AI). The European Commission warned of the need to regulate AI as early as April 2021, Deutsche Welle reports. After Open AI launched its ChatGPT chatbot, the pressure to create a package of laws intensified.

Within the EU, this topic has been intensively discussed over the last two years. EU countries approved draft legislation back in December. The approval of the rules by the 27 EU member states was considered a formality, however, countries such as France and Germany expressed some concerns about the new regulations. As a result, negotiations on the final version of the laws dragged on.

The European Union aims to set global standards for the use of AI in sectors ranging from banking and manufacturing to medicine and travel. The rules also address the military use of AI and define safety parameters.

EU Internal Market Commissioner, Thierry Breton, described the proposed AI Act as the first ever.

“The AI Act has stirred great passions. And rightly so. Member States today backed the political agreement reached in December, recognising the perfect balance that negotiators struck between innovation and security," described Breton.

The popularity of ChatGPT and other generative AI programmes has been a wake-up call for many as the possibilities of this technology have become apparent, both in a positive and negative sense.

Proponents argue that AI will improve production and make life easier for those employees that new technology will not replace. AI’s shocking ability to quickly and easily create fake images, voice messages and video recordings, for example, have set off “alarm sirens” as some experts fear that the technology could be misused to spread misinformation or cyberbullying.

Source: seznamzpravy.cz