Agreement reached in the EU onAi Act, the European standard to give rules to the development of artificial intelligence. The European Commissioner for the Internal Market announced it on Thierry Breton who rejoices: “Historic! The EU becomes the first continent to establish clear rules for the use of artificial intelligence. The AI Act is much more than a regulation: it is a springboard for EU startups and researchers to lead the global AI race. The best is yet to come.” This is the first regulatory framework on AI systems in the world. EU co-legislators have found a “political agreement” on a text that should promote innovation in Europe, while limiting the possible excesses of these technologies.
Algorithms and copyrights
When it comes to generative AI, the trade-off is a two-speed approach. Rules will be imposed on everyone to ensure the quality of the data used in the development of the algorithms and to check that they do not violate copyright legislation. Developers will also need to ensure that the sounds, images and texts produced are clearly identified as artificial.
Rules for high-risk systems
The heart of the project consists of a list of rules imposed only on systems deemed “high risk”, those used in sensitive areas such as education, human resources, law enforcement. These systems will be subject to a number of obligations such as providing for human control of the machine, the creation of technical documentation or the implementation of a risk management system.
Facial recognition
The most controversial point: real-time and remote biometric identification systems, such as facial recognition.
Negotiators agreed on a series of limits and narrow exceptions for the use of biometric identification (RBI) systems in publicly accessible spaces, subject to judicial authorization and for strictly defined lists of crimes. “Post-remote” RBI, it is explained, would be used exclusively for the targeted search of a person convicted or suspected of having committed a serious crime. In essence, the classification of citizens or mass surveillance systems used in China will be prohibited. However, on the remote biometric identification of people in public places, states have obtained exemptions for some serious crimes or for the fight against terrorism.
Other prohibited practices
Prohibitions include manipulative techniques, emotion recognition, predictive policing systems, as well as the classification of people based on behavior or personal characteristics, social scoring.