EU enacts landmark AI legislation to guard residents’ rights and stop dangerous makes use of of synthetic intelligence

What simply occurred? European Union lawmakers on Wednesday voted overwhelmingly to enact a landmark legislation governing synthetic intelligence. Known as the AI Act, the brand new regulation was permitted by 523 votes to 46 and is anticipated to vary the best way AI is utilized by authorities businesses and companies within the EU.

In a press release following the vote, the European Parliament stated that the brand new legislation is the first-ever authorized framework on AI, and can do a balancing job of addressing the dangers associated to the usage of the rising know-how whereas positioning Europe to play a number one position in its growth globally. The lawmakers additionally said that the Act was designed to safeguard most people from dangerous makes use of of synthetic intelligence whereas offering AI builders and organizations with binding pointers on easy methods to use it in a non-intrusive method.

In line with the EU, the AI Act will safeguard the elemental rights of European residents, in addition to shield democratic values and environmental sustainability from “high-risk AI.” As a part of the plan, the brand new legislation bans sure AI purposes that the lawmakers consider threaten residents’ rights. These embrace “biometric categorization techniques based mostly on delicate traits and untargeted scraping of facial photos from the web or CCTV footage to create facial recognition databases.”

Different purposes within the “banned” listing embrace “emotion recognition” in workplaces and colleges, and social scoring. To stop a dystopian future showcased in motion pictures like Minority Report, the legislation additionally categorically prevents predictive policing when it’s based mostly solely on profiling an individual or assessing their traits. Lastly, AI that “manipulates human conduct or exploits folks’s vulnerabilities” can be barred below the brand new legislation.

Nonetheless, as with most civil rights and privateness legal guidelines, there are some exemptions for legislation enforcement. Whereas the usage of AI for policing has largely been forbidden within the new legislation, officers are permitted to make use of real-time biometric identification techniques in some conditions if “strict safeguards” are met. For instance, police within the EU can use AI in focused searches for lacking folks or to forestall a terrorist assault, supplied they get prior judicial or administrative authorization.

Coming to general-purpose AI software program, the legislation clearly stipulates that it should meet sure transparency necessities, together with “compliance with EU copyright legislation and publishing detailed summaries of the content material used for coaching.” The Act additionally specifies that AI-generated photos or manipulated audio and video content material, in any other case generally known as “deepfakes,” have to be correctly labeled as such.