The European Union took an important step on Wednesday toward passing what will be one of the First major law to regulate artificial intelligenceA potential model for policymakers around the world as they grapple with how to put railings on rapidly evolving technology.
The European Parliament, a main legislative branch of the European Union, passed a draft law known as the AI Act, which would impose new restrictions on what is seen as technology. risky use, It would severely curtail the use of facial recognition software, while requiring makers of AI systems like ChatGPT chatbots to disclose more about the data they use to build their programs.
Vote is one step in a long process. The final version of the law is not expected to be passed until later this year.
The European Union is further along than the United States and other large Western governments in regulating AI. new readiness Afterwards ChatGPT last year’s releasewhich raised concerns about the technology’s potential effects on employment and society.
Policymakers everywhere from Washington to Beijing are now racing to regulate an emerging technology that’s worrying even some of its earliest creators. In the United States, the White House is issued policy considerations Including rules to test AI systems before they are publicly available and to protect privacy rights. in China, draft rules Makers of the chatbots to be unveiled in April will be required to comply with the country’s strict censorship rules. Beijing is also taking more control over how the makers of AI systems use data.
How effective any regulation of AI can be is unclear. In a sign of the new capabilities of the technology emerging faster than lawmakers can handle, earlier versions of the EU law did not pay much attention to so-called generative AI systems such as ChatGPT, which can produce text, images and video in response. gives a hint.
In the latest version of Europe’s bill passed on Wednesday, generative AI will face new transparency requirements. This includes publishing summaries of copyrighted material used to train the system, a proposal supported by the publishing industry but opposed by its developers as technically infeasible. Makers of generative AI systems will also have to put in place safeguards to prevent them from generating illegal content.
Francine Bennett, acting director of the Ada Lovelace Institute, an organization in London that has pushed new AI laws, said the EU proposal was an “important milestone”.
“It’s hard to regulate fast-moving and increasingly reusable technology when even the companies building the technology aren’t entirely clear how things will go,” Ms Bennett said. “But it would certainly be bad for all of us to continue to operate without adequate regulation.”
The EU bill takes a “risk-based” approach to regulating AI, focusing on applications with the greatest potential for human harm. This would include legal systems using AI systems to operate critical infrastructure such as water or energy, and when determining access to public services and government benefits. Manufacturers of the technology must conduct a risk assessment before putting the technology into daily use, similar to the drug approval process.
A major area of debate is the use of facial recognition. The European Parliament voted to ban the use of live facial recognition, but questions remain about whether exemptions should be allowed for national security and other law enforcement purposes.
Another provision would ban companies from scraping biometric data from social media to build a database, a practice that came under scrutiny after the facial recognition company used it. clearview ai,
Tech leaders are trying to influence the debate. That’s what Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, has done in recent months. visited with at least 100 US lawmakers and other global policy makers in South America, Europe, Africa and Asia, including European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. Mr Altman has called for regulation of AI, but also said the EU proposal could be prohibitively difficult to comply with.
After Wednesday’s vote, a final version of the law will be negotiated between representatives of the EU’s three branches – the European Parliament, the European Commission and the Council of the European Union. Officials said they hoped to reach a final agreement by the end of the year.
