“The EU is AI!”
» The Member States of the European Union approved on Friday unprecedented legislation at the global level to regulate artificial intelligence (AI) which sparked intense negotiations until the end, announced the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the EU .
The ambassadors of the Twenty-Seven “unanimously confirmed” the political agreement reached last December between the Member States and the MEPs, she indicated on X (formerly Twitter), confirming diplomatic sources.
📝 Signed!
Coreper I Ambassadors confirmed the final compromised text found on the proposal on harmonized rules on artificial intelligence (#AIAct).
The AI Act is a milestone, marking the 1st rules for AI in the 🌍, aiming to make it safe & in respect of 🇪🇺 fundamental rights.
pic.twitter.com/QUe2Sr89A5
— Belgian Presidency of the Council of the EU 2024 (@EU2024BE) February 2, 2024
Some countries, including France and Germany, had raised points of concern, which were taken into account before finalizing the text, according to diplomats.
European Commissioner Thierry Breton, in charge of the file, welcomed a “historic, world first” regulation.
“The AI law has unleashed passions, and rightly so!
Today, member states approved the December political agreement, recognizing the perfect balance found by negotiators between innovation and security,” he said.
"Historic, first..."
The #IAAct has unleashed passions... rightly so!
Today all 27 member states unanimously approved the political agreement reached in December—recognizing the balance found by negotiators between innovation & security.
The EU is AI!🇪🇺 pic.twitter.com/DiidlOsGyd
— Thierry Breton (@ThierryBreton) February 2, 2024
The European Commission presented its “AI Act” project in April 2021. But the appearance at the end of 2022 of ChatGPT, from the Californian start-up OpenAI, capable of writing dissertations, poems or translations in a few seconds, gave a new dimension and caused the acceleration of discussions.
This system, like those capable of creating sounds or images, revealed to the general public the immense potential of AI.
But also certain risks: the dissemination on social networks of false photographs, larger than life, has alerted to the danger of manipulation of opinion.
Copyright legislation
Paris and Berlin were keen that European legislation protect start-ups specializing in artificial intelligence, so as not to prevent the emergence of future “European champions” in the sector.
On Tuesday in Berlin, German Digital Minister Volker Wissing was pleased to have “been able to obtain improvements for small and medium-sized businesses, avoid disproportionate requirements and ensure that we remain internationally competitive”.
On generative AI, rules will be imposed on everyone to ensure the quality of the data used in the development of the algorithms and to verify that they do not violate copyright legislation.
Developers will also have to ensure that the sounds, images and texts produced are clearly identified as artificial.
Reinforced constraints will apply only to the most powerful systems.
Read alsoArtificial intelligence: what the European agreement contains, a unique framework in the world
Systems deemed to be “high risk” – in sensitive areas such as critical infrastructure, education, human resources, policing, etc. – will be subject to a series of obligations such as providing for human control over the machine, the establishment of technical documentation, or even the implementation of a risk management system.