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Causes.com
| 7.19.23

EU Advances in AI Regulations

Should the U.S. do the same?

What's the story?

  • European Union lawmakers advanced landmark restrictions on using artificial intelligence, the world's first comprehensive AI law, as American tech giants continue to invest heavily in the technology.
  • The EU's first regulatory AI framework was proposed in April 2021 by the European Commission. The legislation aims to ensure safe, transparent, and people-driven AI systems.
  • The EU AI Act now awaits negotiations with the European Council, with officials aiming for a final agreement by the end of the year.

What's in the act?

  • The EU AI Act employs a risk-based approach, including legislation that bans tools deemed "unacceptable," such as systems predicting criminal behavior using analytics.
  • It also limits high-risk technologies, including voter manipulation tools and recommendation algorithms.
  • In addition, the act requires corporations to publish summaries of copyrighted data used to train artificial intelligence tools, addressing concerns from publishers that they are profiting off of website materials.

What does this mean for AI?

  • If the proposed legislation is adopted, it will likely impact global lawmakers and establish standards that can affect all consumers. Companies may adjust their practices internationally to avoid dealing with inconsistent policies.
  • OpenAI warned, and later reversed the warning, that it may have to leave Europe due to the legislation's severity. 
  • Legislation has already impacted the progress of AI in Europe. Google delayed the launch of its chatbot Bard due to privacy assessment requests from the Irish Data Protection Commission. Italy temporarily banned ChatGPT due to concerns about potential violations of European data privacy regulations.
  • Some Democratic lawmakers have expressed concerns about lagging behind Europe in establishing technology regulations.
  • Sen. Michael F. Bennet (D-Colo.) said:

 

"The United States should be the standard-setter…We need to lead that debate globally, and I think we're behind where the EU is."

 

What do you think? Should the U.S. start regulating AI more?

 

-Laura Woods

(Photo credit: Unsplash)