At the plenary session of the European Parliament, in the French city of Strasbourg, MEPs approved with 499 votes in favour, 28 against, and 93 abstentions, their negotiating position to start talks with the EU Member States (represented in the Council) on the final form of the AI ​​law, which the Commission hopes will come to fruition later this year.


“The rules aim to promote the adoption of human-centric and reliable AI and protect health, security, fundamental rights, and democracy from its harmful effects,” stresses the European Assembly in a statement.


Specifically, in this position now adopted by MEPs, it is defined that the new rules foresee a total ban on AI for biometric surveillance, recognition of emotions, and preventive policing, impose that systems that generate this technology such as ChatGPT indicate in a transparent way that the contents have been generated by AI and even though programs used to influence voters in elections are considered high risk.


In April 2021, the European Commission presented a proposal to regulate AI systems, the first legislation at EU level which aims to safeguard the EU's fundamental values ​​and rights and the safety of users, forcing systems considered to be high risk to comply with mandatory requirements related to its reliability.


The document has since been under discussion between the co-legislators and, in an interview with the Lusa agency and other European media in Brussels, at the end of May, the executive vice-president of the European Commission responsible for ‘A Europe Prepared for the Digital Age and for the Competition’, Margrethe Vestager, said she expects an agreement this year in the EU on the first law on AI.


“We hope to have the first trialogue [discussion between co-legislators] on the AI ​​Act in Europe before the summer, which would mean that, if we work hard for it, we can have a result by the end of the year”, said Margrethe Vestager, while admitting that the new rules will only come into force in 2025, given the necessary adaptation time, not keeping up with the speed of technology.

This will therefore be the first regulation directed at AI, despite the fact that the creators and those responsible for the development of this technology are already subject to European legislation on fundamental rights, consumer protection, and rules on the safety of products and of responsibility.

It is expected that additional requirements will be introduced to address the risks, such as the existence of human supervision or the obligation to provide clear information on the capabilities and limitations of artificial intelligence.

AI has been increasingly used in areas such as entertainment (customisation of contents), 'online' commerce (prediction of consumer tastes), household appliances (intelligent programming) and electronic equipment (use of virtual assistants such as Siri or Alexa, among others).

The European Commission has been trying to strengthen cooperation between Member States regarding AI, but there is still no common legal framework, so the aim is to move from a voluntary approach to the regulatory sphere.

Author

A passionate Irish journalist with a love for cycling, politics and of course Portugal especially their sausage rolls.

Rory Mc Ginn