The European Parliament adopted its negotiating position on the Artificial Intelligence Regulation on Wednesday morning. But the position of the MEPs pits the Parliament and the Commission against each other on the processing of biometric data in real time.
The Commission considers that there should be more safeguards for criminal investigations, with the possibility to process certain data in real time in special circumstances. Parliament is more in favor of guaranteeing privacy.
The rapporteur of the first law on artificial intelligence, MEP Brando Benifei, assumes that the parliamentary debate was not without controversy and argues that the legislation must keep pace with technology.
“Today we had a last-minute disagreement in Parliament on a point about maintaining a clear ban on real-time biometric identification,” said the MEP, who regretted “the attempt to politicize the issue and turn it into a tool of advertising”.
The President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, says that MEPs must ensure that technological evolution respects European values. “As legislators, you have to seize the opportunity, because it’s about change, to understand that we can’t afford to stand still and not fear the future.”
“In the future, we will need clear and constant boundaries and boundaries for artificial intelligence,” warned the President of the European Parliament.
“We have managed to maintain a clear safeguard in parliament to avoid any risk of mass surveillance,” said Benifei, guaranteeing that “at the same time, the possibility will be preserved, with non-real-time biometric identification, to chasing criminals. and any risks in society”.
Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, on the other hand, believes there should be exceptions and defended – in the first reaction to Parliament’s vote – that some biometric data should be able to be processed in real time.
“For example, if the police are looking for a missing child or if there is a terrorist situation and there are people on plane flights that need to be found,” said Vestager, acknowledging that “Parliament does not agree with this position”.
“The Council, I think, is currently largely in line with the Commission’s proposal,” he stressed a few hours before the negotiations (trilogues), which start this Wednesday evening. “During the negotiations, we will see how it will be resolved,” Vestager stressed, expecting the European Union to pass the first law on artificial intelligence by the end of the year.
Risks and prohibitions for AI
“The rules follow a risk approach and set obligations for both providers and users, depending on the level of risk AI can generate,” the European Parliament said in a note released after the vote.
“AI systems that pose an unacceptable risk to people’s safety will be strictly prohibited, including those that employ subliminal or deliberately manipulative techniques, exploit people’s vulnerabilities, or be used for social scoring (ranking people based on their social behavior, status, socio-economic status, personal characteristics)”, can be read in the same note.
The list of practices that parliament wants to guarantee will be banned also includes “the recognition of emotions and predictive policing”.
“Generative AI systems, such as ChatGPT, should make it clear that the content is generated by artificial intelligence,” defend MEPs, who also believe that the AI data “used to influence voters in elections is a pose a great risk”.
Source: DN
