European Union lawmakers gave final approval to the 27-nation bloc’s artificial intelligence law Wednesday last week, putting the world-leading rules on track to take effect later this year.
Lawmakers in the European Parliament voted overwhelmingly in favor of the Artificial Intelligence Act, five years after regulations were first proposed. The AI Act is expected to act as a global signpost for other governments grappling with how to regulate the fast-developing technology.
Here’s a look at the world’s first comprehensive set of AI rules:
Photo: AP 照片：美聯社
HOW DOES THE AI ACT WORK?
Like many EU regulations, the AI Act was initially intended to act as consumer safety legislation, taking a “risk-based approach” to products or services that use artificial intelligence.
The riskier an AI application, the more scrutiny it faces. The vast majority of AI systems are expected to be low risk, such as content recommendation systems or spam filters. Companies can choose to follow voluntary requirements and codes of conduct.
Photo: AP 照片：美聯社
High-risk uses of AI, such as in medical devices or critical infrastructure like water or electrical networks, face tougher requirements like using high-quality data and providing clear information to users.
Some AI uses are banned because they’re deemed to pose an unacceptable risk, like social scoring systems that govern how people behave, some types of predictive policing and emotion recognition systems in school and workplaces.
Other banned uses include police scanning faces in public using AI-powered remote “biometric identification” systems, except for serious crimes like kidnapping or terrorism.
Photo: Reuters 照片：路透
WHAT ABOUT GENERATIVE AI?
The law’s early drafts focused on AI systems carrying out narrowly limited tasks, like scanning resumes and job applications. The astonishing rise of general purpose AI models, exemplified by OpenAI’s ChatGPT, sent EU policymakers scrambling to keep up.
They added provisions for so-called generative AI models, the technology underpinning AI chatbot systems that can produce unique and seemingly lifelike responses, images and more.
Developers of general purpose AI models — from European startups to OpenAI and Google — will have to provide a detailed summary of the text, pictures, video and other data on the Internet that is used to train the systems as well as follow EU copyright law.
AI-generated deepfake pictures, video or audio of existing people, places or events must be labeled as artificially manipulated.
There’s extra scrutiny for the biggest and most powerful AI models that pose “systemic risks,” which include OpenAI’s GPT4 — its most advanced system — and Google’s Gemini.
The EU says it’s worried that these powerful AI systems could “cause serious accidents or be misused for far-reaching cyberattacks.” They also fear generative AI could spread “harmful biases” across many applications, affecting many people.
Companies that provide these systems will have to assess and mitigate the risks; report any serious incidents, such as malfunctions that cause someone’s death or serious harm to health or property; put cybersecurity measures in place; and disclose how much energy their models use.
Brussels first suggested AI regulations in 2019, taking a familiar global role in ratcheting up scrutiny of emerging industries, while other governments scramble to keep up.
The AI Act is expected to officially become law by May or June, after a few final formalities, including a blessing from EU member countries.
Violations of the AI Act could draw fines of up to 35 million euros (US$38 million), or 7 percent of a company’s global revenue.
(AP)
上週三，歐盟人工智慧法獲歐盟27個會員國的立法者最終批准，這領先全球的法規預計在今年稍晚生效。
該法案首次提出五年後，歐洲議會議員以壓倒性多數投票通過《人工智慧法》。人工智慧科技日新月異，各國政府無不想方設法要加以監管，《人工智慧法》預計將為全球指出一條道路。
這世界第一部全面的人工智慧法規，其梗概如下：
《人工智慧法》如何運作？
跟許多歐盟法規一樣，《人工智慧法》的立法初衷是保障消費者安全，對使用人工智慧的產品或服務採取「依風險級別管理之方法」。
人工智慧應用程式的風險越大，所受的審查也就越多。絕大多數人工智慧系統預計都是低風險的，例如內容推薦系統或垃圾郵件過濾器。公司可以選擇自發遵循法規及行為準則。
人工智慧的高風險用途，例如在醫療設備、供水或電網等關鍵基礎設施中，所面對的規定更嚴格，例如必須使用高品質數據，以及向用戶提供清楚的資訊。
某些人工智慧的用途則被禁止，因被認為會帶來不可接受的風險，例如控制人們行為的社會評分系統、學校和工作場所某些類型的預測性警務與情緒辨識系統。
其他被禁止的用途還包括警察使用人工智慧遠端「生物辨識」系統在公共場合掃描臉部，但偵查綁架或恐怖攻擊等嚴重犯罪則不在此限。
生成式人工智慧如何規範？
這部法律的早期草案著重於人工智慧系統執行有限的任務，例如掃描履歷和求職文件。以OpenAI的ChatGPT為代表的通用人工智慧模型的崛起勢如破竹，讓歐盟政策制定者爭先恐後地跟上。
因此他們增加了所謂生成式人工智慧模型的規定，該模型是支撐人工智慧聊天機器人系統的技術，可產生獨特且看似真人的回應、圖像等。
通用人工智慧模型的開發者——從歐洲新創公司到OpenAI和谷歌——必須在網路上提供用於訓練系統的文字、圖片、影片和其他資料的詳細摘要，並遵守歐盟版權法。
以人工智慧生成的現世人物、地點或事件的深度偽造圖片、影片或音訊，必須標記為經人為變造。
「系統性風險」最廣、最強大的人工智慧模型，則須進行額外的審查，包括OpenAI的GPT4（其最先進的系統）和谷歌的Gemini。
歐盟表示擔心這些強大的人工智慧系統可能「導致嚴重事故或被濫用於影響深遠的網路攻擊」。他們還擔心生成式人工智慧可能會在許多應用程式中傳播「有害偏見」，從而影響許多人。
提供這些系統的公司必須評估與減輕風險、報告所有的嚴重事件，例如導致死亡或嚴重損害健康或財產的故障，制定網路安全措施，並披露其模型的能源使用量。
布魯塞爾於2019年首次提出人工智慧法規，如同歐盟在全球常扮演的對新興產業加強審查的領頭羊角色，他國政府則紛紛跟上。
經過一些最終程序（包括歐盟成員國的批准）後，《人工智慧法》預計將在5月或6月正式成為法律。
違反《人工智慧法》可能會被罰款最高3,500萬歐元（3,800萬美元），或該公司全球收入的7%。
（台北時報林俐凱編譯）
Street lights are often taken for granted until a power outage plunges the world into darkness. When that happens, the value of these lighting installations becomes evident as the world turns into a more dangerous place for pedestrians and motorists alike. The Chinese could claim to be the first to have constructed a crude type of street light. Around 500 BC, residents of Beijing employed a type of street lamp that used hollow bamboo pipes and natural gas vents to create burning torches. Later, ancient Romans adopted lamps fueled by vegetable oil, which relied on slaves to light and
A: Who else is on Billboard’s list: “The 25 greatest pop stars of the 21st Century?” B: No. 15 to 6 are: Miley Cyrus, Justin Timberlake, Nicki Minaj, Eminem, Usher, Adele, Ariana Grande, Justin Bieber, Kanye West and Britney Spears. A: I can’t believe that Adele’s only at No. 10. B: No. 5 to 1 are: Lady Gaga, Drake, Rihanna, Taylor Swift and Beyonce. A: Well, they surely deserve the honor. A: 《告示牌》雜誌的「21世紀最偉大的25位流行歌手」，還有誰上榜啊？ B: 第15至6名是：麥莉希拉、大賈斯汀、妮姬米娜、阿姆、亞瑟小子、愛黛兒、亞莉安娜、小賈斯汀、肯伊威斯特、小甜甜布蘭妮。 A: 真不敢相信愛黛兒只排第10名。 B: 第5至1名是：女神卡卡、德瑞克、蕾哈娜、泰勒絲、碧昂絲。 A: 這幾位真是實至名歸！ （By Eddy Chang, Taipei Times／台北時報張聖恩）
A: The 21st Century is now entering its 25th year. B: So Billboard has released a list: “The 25 greatest pop stars of the 21st Century.” A: Who are the greatest pop singers? B: No. 25 to 16 are: Katy Perry, Ed Sheeran, Bad Bunny, One Direction, Lil Wayne, Bruno Mars, BTS, The Weeknd, Shakira and Jay-Z. A: Wow, my favorite K-pop supergroup BTS has made it to the list. A: 21世紀正在邁入第25個年頭了。 B: 《告示牌》雜誌特別公布：「21世紀最偉大的25位流行歌手」。 A: 最偉大的歌手有哪些？ B: 第25至16名是：凱蒂佩芮、紅髮艾德、壞痞兔、1世代、小韋恩、火星人布魯諾、防彈少年團（BTS）、威肯、夏奇拉、Jay-Z。 A: 哇，我最愛的韓流天團BTS也上榜了！ （By Eddy Chang, Taipei Times／台北時報張聖恩）
Spoiler alert and shift blame 破梗&甩鍋 在新冠疫情期間，無論是因為封城 (lockdown) 還是居家隔離 (self-isolation at home)，人們關在家中使用網路的時間大增。這也讓一些原本只存在於網路論壇的用語廣為普及。我們來談一下破梗 (spoiler alert) 與甩鍋 (shift blame) 這兩個用語。 有位古典文學教授 Joel Christensen 針對領導統御與疫情控制寫了一篇以古喻今、相當深入的文章：“Plagues follow bad leadership in ancient Greek tales”，文中出現一些講法，可用來翻譯上述的流行語： In the 5th century B.C., the playwright Sophocles begins Oedipus Tyrannos with the title character struggling to identify the cause of a plague striking his city, Thebes. (Spoiler alert: It’s his own bad leadership.) (Joel Christensen, “Plagues follow bad leadership in ancient Greek tales,” The Conversation, March 12, 2020) 作者提到 Oedipus（伊底帕斯）想找出瘟疫何以降臨他的城邦的緣由，加了一句：Spoiler alert: It’s his own bad leadership.（破梗：領導無方）。Spoiler alert 就是「破梗」，如果用在有人洩漏電影劇情的情境中，也可以翻作「小心爆雷」或「劇透警告」。疫情之下，在家看影集、電影成了很多人的娛樂，但要小心劇透 (spoilers)，很多 YouTube 上的影評在開頭也都會說 Spoiler alert!，警告還沒看過電影的觀眾小心爆雷、劇透。 至於「甩鍋」，源自大陸網民用語，通常意指某人犯了錯之後想推卸責任、轉移焦點、甚至讓別人背黑鍋的做法。疫情爆發後，相關網路資訊量爆增，許多中國網民也想找人為這場疫情負責，紛紛呼籲地方政府首長、地方黨書記不要「甩鍋」。 其實，在古代文學《奧德賽》中，就有「將自己的責任怪罪眾神」的說法，試用時下流行的「甩鍋」來重新翻譯： Humans are always blaming the gods for their suffering, but they experience
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