The European Union “has no time to lose” in regulating artificial intelligence (AI), European Commission Vice President Margrethe Vestager said on Monday, calling for the “rapid” adoption of a text currently being hotly debated in Parliament. .
“There is no time to waste,” he added, and said he hoped that the “AI Law”, a text prepared by the Commission, would be adopted “before the end of the year.”
MEPs are due to adopt a common position by vote on Thursday. This will be followed by difficult negotiations between Parliament, the Commission and the Member States.
The EU has been working on a draft regulation on artificial intelligence for years, which would be the first major legislation in the world to regulate the sector. Objective: to allow innovation while guaranteeing the security and rights of users.
The discussions drag on
The Commission presented its project in April 2021. But since then, discussions have dragged on in Parliament, where supporters of maximum regulation and those who advocate letting it pass to favor its development face each other.
The hype and cymbal arrival of ChatGPT at the end of last year further agitated the debates, with many MEPs concerned about the risk of obsolescence of this text written before the appearance of this tool.
The new legislation “may apply to artificial intelligences such as Chat GPT”, defended Ms Vestager for her part, admitting however that “it would not be the end of the story with AI, but a very, very solid start”.
The “AI Law” focuses on the uses of artificial intelligence, some of which will be prohibited, such as the “generalized surveillance of a population” or the manipulation of “citizens’ behaviour, opinions or decisions”.
Others would only be regulated, such as “remote biometric identification of people in public places” or emergency services prioritization systems, access to educational institutions or recruitment tools.
Source: BFM TV
