The European Union will seek to thrash out
an agreement on sweeping rules to regulate artificial intelligence on
Wednesday, following months of difficult negotiations in particular on how to
monitor generative AI like ChatGPT.
The EU is racing to approve the world’s first comprehensive AI law after the
issue took on greater urgency when the ChatGPT bot burst onto the scene last
year, highlighting AI’s dizzying advances.
ChatGPT wowed with its ability to produce poems and essays within seconds.
AI proponents say the technology will benefit humanity, transforming
everything from work to healthcare, but others worry about the risks it poses
to society, fearing it could thrust the world into unprecedented chaos.
Brussels is bent on bringing big tech to heel with a powerful legal armoury
to protect EU citizens’ rights, especially those covering privacy and data
protection.
The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, first proposed an AI law in
2021 that would regulate systems based on the level of risk they posed. For
example, the greater the risk to citizens’ rights or health, the greater the
systems’ obligations.
Negotiations on the final legal text began in June, but a fierce debate in
recent weeks over how to regulate general-purpose AI like ChatGPT and
Google’s Bard chatbot threatened talks at the last minute.
Some member states worry that too much regulation will stifle innovation and
hurt the chances of producing European AI giants to challenge those in the
United States, including ChatGPT’s creator OpenAI as well as tech titans like
Google and Meta.
Negotiators from the European Parliament and EU member states will meet on
Wednesday from 1400 GMT, with talks expected to last into the evening.
Although there is no real deadline, senior EU figures have repeatedly said
the bloc must finalise the law before the end of 2023.
– Chasing local champions –
EU diplomats, industry sources and other EU officials have warned the talks
could end without an agreement as stumbling blocks remain over key issues.
Others have suggested that even if there is a political agreement, several
meetings will still be needed to hammer out the law’s technical details.
And even if EU negotiators agree, the law would not come into force until
2026 at the earliest.
The main sticking point is over how to regulate so-called foundation models –
– designed to perform a variety of tasks — with France, Germany and Italy
calling to exclude them.
“France, Italy and Germany don’t want a regulation for these models,” said
German MEP Axel Voss, who is a member of the special parliamentary committee
on AI.
The parliament, however, believes it is “necessary… for transparency” to
regulate such models, Voss said.
Late last month, the three biggest EU economies published a paper calling for
an “innovation-friendly” approach for the law known as the AI Act.
Berlin, Paris and Rome do not want the law to include restrictive rules for
foundation models, but instead say they should adhere to codes of conduct.
Many believe this change in view is motivated by their wish to avoid
hindering the development of European champions — and perhaps to help
companies such as France’s Mistral AI and Germany’s Aleph Alpha.
– ‘Significant progress’ –
Another sticking point is remote biometric surveillance — basically, facial
identification through camera data in public places.
The EU parliament wants a full ban on “real time” remote biometric
identification systems, which member states oppose. The commission had
initially proposed that there could be exemptions to find potential victims
of crime including missing children.
There have been suggestions MEPs could concede on this point in exchange for
concessions in other areas.
The EU’s top tech enforcer, Thierry Breton, remains hopeful for an agreement.
“Significant progress has been made by both sides,” Breton, the EU’s internal
market commissioner, said on Tuesday, pointing to the mandate given to Spain,
which holds the rotating EU presidency, to conclude negotiations on
Wednesday.
Concerns over AI’s impact and the need to supervise the technology are shared
worldwide.
US President Joe Biden issued an executive order in October to regulate AI in
a bid to mitigate the technology’s risks. (BSS/AFP)
