Post by account_disabled on Feb 18, 2024 4:38:18 GMT -5
The three branches of the European Union provisionally agreed on their landmark regulation on AI, paving the way for the economic bloc to ban certain uses of the technology and demand transparency from providers. But despite warnings from some world leaders, the changes AI will require of companies remain unclear and potentially a long way off. First proposed in , the AI Act has not yet been passed in its entirety. Hotly debated last-minute compromises softened some of its toughest regulatory threats. And enforcement likely won't begin for years.
In the very short term, the compromise on the EU Europe Mobile Number List AI Law will not have much direct effect on established US-based AI designers because, under its terms, it will probably not come into force until ,” says Paul Barrett. , deputy director of the Stern Center for Business and Human Rights at New York University. So for now, Barrett says major AI players like OpenAI, Microsoft, Google, and Meta will likely continue to fight for dominance, particularly as they navigate regulatory uncertainty in the US. The AI Act began before the explosion of general-purpose AI (GPAI) tools, like OpenAI's GPT-4 large language model, and regulating them became a notoriously sticky sticking point in last-minute discussions.
The law divides its rules according to the level of risk an AI system has to society or, as the EU said in a statement, "the higher the risk, the stricter the rules." But some Member States were concerned that this rigor could make the EU an unattractive market for AI. France, Germany and Italy pushed to ease restrictions on the GPAI during negotiations. They got compromises, including limiting what can be considered “high-risk” systems, which would then be subject to some of the strictest rules. Instead of classifying all GPAIs as high risk, there will be a two-tier system and police exemptions for completely prohibited uses of AI, such as remote biometric identification. This has not yet satisfied all critics.