A historic agreement. The Twenty-Seven approved, this Friday, February 2, unprecedented legislation at the global level, the Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act), a text regulating artificial intelligence in the European Union, announced the Belgian presidency of the Council of the EU.
During a meeting on Friday, the ambassadors of the Twenty-Seven “unanimously confirmed” the political agreement reached last December between the member states and the MEPs, she indicated on X (ex-Twitter) , in unison with several diplomatic sources. Some countries, including France and Germany, had raised points of concern, which were taken into account before the text was finalized, according to diplomats.
“This ‘AI Act’ is a significant step, establishing the first rules on the planet for artificial intelligence, to make it more secure and respectful of the EU’s fundamental rights,” said the Belgian presidency.
European Commissioner Thierry Breton, in charge of the file, welcomed, on the social network, a “historic” regulation, a world first. “The AI law has unleashed passions, and rightly so! Today, member states approved the December political agreement, recognizing the perfect balance found by negotiators between innovation and security” , did he declare.
The conditions of Paris and Berlin
The European Commission presented its “AI Act” project in April 2021. But the appearance at the end of 2022 of ChatGPT, from the Californian start-up OpenAI, capable of writing dissertations, poems or translations in a few seconds, gave a new dimension and caused the acceleration of discussions. This system, like those capable of creating sounds or images, revealed to the general public the immense potential of AI. But also certain risks: the dissemination on social networks of false photographs, larger than life, has alerted to the danger of manipulation of opinion. Paris and Berlin were keen that European legislation protect start-ups specializing in artificial intelligence, so as not to prevent the emergence of future “European champions” in the sector.
On generative AI, rules will be imposed on everyone to ensure the quality of the data used in the development of the algorithms and to verify that they do not violate copyright legislation. Developers will also have to ensure that the sounds, images and texts produced are clearly identified as artificial. Reinforced constraints will apply only to the most powerful systems.
The AI Act provides in particular for a ban, except in security exceptions, on remote biometric identification in real time, mass surveillance and behavior manipulation devices or even social score systems (citizen rating), such as the one which currently exists in China.
The AI Act could inspire other countries to implement similar legislation, as was the case with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), adopted in 2016 in the EU.