The European Parliament has approved a draft regulation to ensure the ethical development of artificial intelligence (AI). The new EU-wide rules seek to ensure that AI systems are transparent, traceable, safe, non-discriminatory, and environmentally friendly.
The regulation also includes provisions to ensure chatbots comply with fundamental rights and do not produce content that is illegal under EU law. Companies should meet these requirements before putting their services on the market.
During the vote, MEPs added new provisions to the original text proposed by the European Commission, most notably fresh obligations on generative foundation models, like ChatGPT. These models are trained with vast amounts of data and can fulfill a wide range of tasks.
Critics have decried their unchecked development, raising concerns about bias, hate speech, fake news, and state propaganda, among others. The new text seeks to ensure that generative foundation models are transparent about the fact that their content is generated by AI systems and not humans.
MEPs also pushed to broaden the list of “intrusive and discriminatory” AI applications that should be strictly banned across EU territory. The expanded list covers real-time biometric identification in public spaces, predictive policing systems, and emotion recognition in law enforcement and workplaces. AI systems that have the power to influence voters in political campaigns will not be prohibited but will be considered high-risk and subject to closer scrutiny.
The proposed regulation’s human-centric and all-encompassing approach is considered a pioneering step in the global effort to rein in the excesses of AI. The vote, however, is far from final, and MEPs still need to approve their negotiating mandate in a plenary session, which will then be used for discussions with member states. These talks, known in Brussels parlay as “trilogues,” are expected to be intense and protected, given the high stakes and expectations.
SOURCE: Ref – Jorge Liboreiro & Aida Sanchez Alonso
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