EU lawmakers vote to enforce stringent rules on use of AI

European Union lawmakers have recently made significant changes to the draft artificial intelligence (AI) rules.

These changes include a ban on the use of the technology in biometric surveillance and a requirement for generative AI systems, such as ChatGPT to disclose AI-generated content.

The EU Commission’s proposed law is a landmark piece of legislation aimed at safeguarding citizens from the potential dangers of AI. However, these amendments may lead to a clash with EU countries that are opposed to a complete ban on AI use in biometric surveillance.

This decision is a significant step towards ensuring that AI is used ethically and responsibly.

Biometric surveillance, in particular, has raised concerns about privacy and civil liberties.

The rapid adoption of Microsoft-backed OpenAI’s ChatGPT and other bots has led top AI scientists and company executives including Tesla’s Elon Musk and OpenAI’s Sam Altman to raise the potential risks posed to society.

Among other changes, European Union lawmakers want any company using generative tools to disclose copyrighted material used to train its systems and for companies working on “high-risk application” to do a fundamental rights impact assessment and evaluate environmental impact.

Systems like ChatGPT would have to disclose that the content was AI-generated, help distinguish so-called deep-fake images from real ones and ensure safeguards against illegal content.

Microsoft and IBM welcomed the latest move by EU lawmakers but looked forward to further refinement of the proposed legislation.

The lawmakers will now have to thrash out details with EU countries before the draft rules become legislation.

While most big tech companies acknowledge the risks posed by AI, others like Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, have dismissed warnings about the potential dangers.

“AI is intrinsically good, because the effect of AI is to make people smarter,” Meta’s chief AI scientist Yann LeCun said at a conference in Paris on Wednesday.

In the current draft EU law, AI systems that could be used to influence voters and the outcome of elections and systems used by social media platforms with over 45 million users were added to the high-risk list.

Meta and Twitter will fall under that classification.

“AI raises a lot of questions – socially, ethically, economically. But now is not the time to hit any ‘pause button’. On the contrary, it is about acting fast and taking responsibility,” EU industry chief Thierry Breton said.

He stated that he would visit the US next week to meet with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and OpenAI’s Altman to discuss the draft AI Act.

The proposed regulations were published by the Commission two years ago, with the goal of establishing a worldwide standard for a technology critical to practically every industry and business as the EU strives to catch up to AI leaders the United States and China.