European Union lawmakers gave final approval to the 27-nation bloc's artificial intelligence law Wednesday, 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.
Big tech companies generally have supported the need to regulate AI while lobbying to ensure any rules work in their favor.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman caused a minor stir last year when he suggested the ChatGPT maker could pull out of Europe if it can't comply with the AI Act - before backtracking to say there were no plans to leave.
The vast majority of AI systems are expected to be low risk, such as content recommendation systems or spam filters.
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.
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.
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.
In the meantime, lawmakers in at least seven U.S. states are working on their own AI legislation.
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.
Provisions will start taking effect in stages, with countries required to ban prohibited AI systems six months after the rules enter the lawbooks.
Rules for general purpose AI systems like chatbots will start applying a year after the law takes effect.
By mid-2026, the complete set of regulations, including requirements for high-risk systems, will be in force.
Brussels will create an AI Office tasked with enforcing and supervising the law for general purpose AI systems.
Violations of the AI Act could draw fines of up to 35 million euros, or 7% of a company's global revenue.
This isn't Brussels' last word on AI rules, said Italian lawmaker Brando Benifei, co-leader of Parliament's work on the law.
More AI-related legislation could be ahead after summer elections, including in areas like AI in the workplace that the new law partly covers, he said.
This Cyber News was published on www.securityweek.com. Publication date: Wed, 13 Mar 2024 17:13:07 +0000