The EU reached a hard-fought deal on what is poised to become the most comprehensive regulation of artificial intelligence (AI) in the western world.
Thierry Breton, the bloc’s internal market chief, said the deal strikes a balance between fostering innovation and protecting the rights of people and companies.
“We spent a lot of time on finding the right balance between making the most of AI potential to support law enforcement while protecting our citizens’ fundamental rights,” he said early yesterday in a statement. “We do not want any mass surveillance in Europe.”
Photo: AP
After more than 37 hours of negotiations this week, delegates from the European Commission, the European Parliament and the 27 member countries agreed to a set of controls for generative AI tools such as OpenAI Inc’s ChatGPT and Google’s Bard — the kind capable of producing content on command.
The negotiators agreed to allow some live scanning of faces, but with safeguards and exemptions, Breton said.
The deal would prohibit biometric scanning that categorizes people by sensitive characteristics, such as political or religious beliefs, sexual orientation or race. Officials said this was one of the most difficult and sensitive issues in the talks.
The proposed legislation would impose financial penalties on companies that violate the rules, with fines up to 35 million euros (US$37.7 million), or 7 percent of global turnover, depending on the infringement and the size of the company.
The draft legislation still needs to be formally approved by EU member states and the European Parliament, but the deal marks a critical step toward landmark AI policy that could — in the absence of any meaningful action by the US Congress — set the tone for the regulation of the fast-developing technology. The EU is aiming to enact the first firm guardrails on AI outside of Asia.
The decision was hammered out at a session on Friday following a nearly 24-hour marathon that stretched from Wednesday to Thursday.
The difficult discussions underscore how contentious the debate over regulating AI has become, dividing world leaders and tech executives alike as generative tools continue to explode in popularity. The EU has struggled to find a balance between the need to protect its own AI start-ups against potential societal risks.
That proved to be a key sticking point in negotiations, with some countries including France and Germany opposing rules that they said would unnecessarily handicap local companies.
The trickiest point came down to how far to restrict live biometric identification tools. The parliament voted for a complete ban last spring, however, EU countries pushed for exemptions for national security and law enforcement. In the end, the two sides agreed to limit the use of the technology in public spaces with more guardrails.
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