EU to resume negotiations on world’s first AI law on Friday

The European Union failed to reach an agreement Thursday on a sweeping law on artificial intelligence after nearly 24 hours of negotiations, but promised to continue talks the next day.

Brussels wants to pass the world’s first comprehensive AI law before the end of 2023 after the issue took on added urgency when the ChatGPT bot dazzled the world last year, showing the rapid advances of AI.

ChatGPT surprised many with its ability to produce eloquent essays and poems in seconds from simple user prompts.

Despite the technology’s potential to transform work and healthcare, critics point to growing risks of misinformation and misuse of AI, including deepfake images.

Negotiators from the European Parliament and EU member states began discussions on Wednesday afternoon, with ambitious hopes of finalizing a deal by the early hours of Thursday at the latest.

“A lot of progress has been made in the last 22 hours on the AI ​​Law. We will resume work with the EU Parliament and Council tomorrow at 9:00 am (08:00 GMT). Stay tuned!” EU Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton said on social media.

There is no real deadline, but senior EU figures have invested a lot of political capital to finalize the legal text by Thursday morning.

Even if negotiators close a deal on Friday, the law would not take effect until 2026 at the earliest.

There are two areas of division between member states and parliament.

The first sticking point is how to regulate so-called foundation models, designed to perform a variety of tasks, with France, Germany and Italy calling for these systems to be excluded from the strictest parts of the law.

Some member states agree that regulation should limit the harm that can result from the misuse of AI, but they still want to encourage innovation, especially because they want their own European champions, such as OpenAI, creator of the US-based ChatGPT. .

Another sticking point is remote biometric surveillance: basically, facial identification through data from cameras in public places.

The EU parliament wants a complete ban on “real-time” remote biometric identification systems, but some member states want exceptions to allow the technology to be used for law enforcement.

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 pose. For example, the greater the risk to the rights or health of citizens, the greater the obligations of the systems.

Tech titans including Google and Meta are also looking for a piece of the AI ​​pie.

The EU is not alone in its concerns about the impact and influence of AI.

US President Joe Biden issued an executive order in October to regulate AI in a bid to mitigate the risks of the technology.

China also put into effect regulations on AI-generated content in August this year.

© 2023 AFP