The EU has reached an agreement on the AI ​​Act, a landmark in the field of artificial intelligence

Contract and EU at odds over AI policy, as Brussels scrambles to reach agreement

The EU law establishes a set of regulations, placing the strictest limits on the practices that the legislators considered the most dangerous. Late in the negotiations, France and other members of the state objected to provisions in the bill that would regulate the practices behind AI products such as the popular chatbot ChatGPT, which generates artificial speech through using data from the internet. The use by law enforcement of facial expression emerged as an important factor in the discussion.

Roberta Metsola, the president of the European Parliament, praised the law as “avant-garde” and “amazing” and added that the EU AI Act will set the “world standard” for years to come. .

“This is all about Europe taking the lead, and we will do it with integrity,” he said.

The law extends Europe’s leadership in technology regulation. For years, the region has led the world in creating new laws to address concerns about digital privacy, social media abuse and regulation of online markets.

The architects of the AI ​​Act have “considered carefully” the implications for governments around the world since the beginning of the drafting of the law, said Dragoș Tudorache, a Roman politician who leads the AI ​​Law negotiations. . He said he often hears from other politicians who are looking at the EU’s approach as they begin to draft their own AI bills.

“This law will represent a situation, as an example, for many other authorities abroad,” he said, “which means that there should be an additional duty of care when Let’s write it because it will be an influence for many others.

From China to Brazil, this is how AI is controlled around the world

After years of non-implementation in the US Congress, the EU’s technology laws have had many consequences for Silicon Valley companies. The European data protection law, the General Data Protection Regulation, has prompted some companies, such as Microsoft, to reform the way they handle user data even beyond the borders of Europe. Meta, Google and other companies faced fines under the law, and Google delayed the launch of the AI ​​chatbot Bard in the region due to a review under the law. However, there are concerns that the law has created expensive compliance measures that have hampered small businesses, and that lengthy investigations and small fines have made it less effective at the world’s largest companies. .

The region’s new digital laws – the Law on Digital Services and the Law on Digital Markets – are already affecting technology trends. The European Commission announced in October that it was investigating Elon Musk’s X, formerly known as Twitter, for its handling of posts containing terrorism, violence and hate speech related to the Israel-Gaza war. , and Breton has sent letters requiring other companies to be vigilant about. war-related material under the Digital Services Act.

In a sign of growing regulatory concerns about artificial intelligence, Britain’s competition watchdog announced on Friday that it is investigating the relationship between Microsoft and OpenAI, following several year, the tech behemoth’s billion-dollar investment in the company. Microsoft recently got a seat on the non-voting board of OpenAI, after the reorganization of the company’s management after the return of the CEO Sam Altman.

The president of Microsoft, Brad Smith, said in a post on X that the companies will cooperate with the management, but he tried to distinguish the relationship of the companies from other purchases of the Big Tech AI, especially Google’s purchase in 2014 of the London company DeepMind.

Right now, Congress is still in the early stages of crafting legislation related to artificial intelligence, after months of media and media focused on the technology. Senators this week indicated that Washington is taking a lighter approach aimed at attracting developers to build AI in the United States, with lawmakers raising concerns that that EU law may be too burdensome.

The concern was even higher in European AI circles, where it is seen that the new law could prevent the use of the technology, and get more benefits in the United States and the United Kingdom, which have made more progress. at the forefront of AI research and development.

“There will be a few innovations that will not be possible or revalued,” said Andreas Liebl, managing director of the AppliedAI Initiative, a German center for the promotion of artificial intelligence. “It slows you down in terms of global competition.”

This is a developing story and will be updated.