European Legislators Vote for 'First Comprehensive Global AI Regulations'

On Wednesday, June 14, European Parliament lawmakers signed the world's first comprehensive set of regulations for artificial intelligence. These regulations include provisions that could address one of the key challenges: regulating AI globally. According to the Associated Press, the European Parliament's vote is one of the final steps before the regulations become law, which could serve as a model for other countries working on similar regulations. The report states that years of Brussels' efforts to create a protective barrier against AI have gained urgency due to rapid advancements in conversational bots or chatbots like 'ChatGPT'. The importance of this issue lies in the fact that this new technology, while beneficial, can also pose new risks. How do the EU's AI laws work? This legislation, first proposed in 2021, will oversee any product or service that uses AI systems. The law classifies AI systems into four categories based on risk level, from minimal to unacceptable. Higher-risk applications, such as hiring or technologies intended for children, will face more stringent requirements, including greater transparency and the use of accurate data. The enforcement of these laws will be the responsibility of the 27 EU member states. Regulators can compel companies to withdraw their applications from the market. In more serious cases, violators could face fines of up to 40 million euros (43 million dollars) or 7% of their global annual revenue. For tech giants like Google and Microsoft, these fines could reach billions of dollars. One of the main objectives of the EU is to safeguard against any AI threats to health and safety and to protect fundamental rights and values. Among the uses banned due to their potential risks to individuals and communities are certain 'social scoring' systems that judge individuals based on their behavior, which are completely prohibited. Additionally, the misuse of AI against vulnerable individuals, including children, or covert manipulation in systems that could lead to harm, is prohibited. For example, manipulating a toy that encourages children to engage in dangerous behavior through interactive dialogue is banned. Predictive policing tools that use data to forecast who might commit a crime are also prohibited. European Parliament lawmakers also agreed to the European Commission's original proposal to expand the ban on remote facial recognition and biometric identification in public spaces. This technology uses AI to match faces or other physical features with databases. Meanwhile, a controversial amendment to this law, which would have allowed police to use pedestrian scanning technology in exceptional cases such as finding missing children or preventing terrorist threats, was not approved. AI systems used in areas such as employment and education that impact individuals' life processes will face stringent requirements such as transparency with users and taking steps to assess and mitigate discrimination risks from algorithms. The commission states that most AI systems, such as gaming or spam filters, fall into the low-risk or no-risk category.