Members of the European Parliament have voted overwhelmingly to approve a new world-leading set of rules on artificial intelligence.
They are designed to make sure humans stay in control of the technology – and that it benefits the human race.
So what’s changing?
The rules are risk-based. The riskier the effects of an artificial intelligence (AI) system, the more scrutiny it faces. For example, a system that makes recommendations to users would be counted as low-risk, while an AI-powered medical device would be high-risk.
The EU expects most AI applications to be low-risk, and different types of activities have been given groupings to make sure the laws stay relevant long into the future.
If a new technology intends to use AI for policing, for example, it will need more scrutiny.
In almost all cases, companies will have to make it obvious when the technology has been used.
Higher-risk companies will have to provide clear information to users, and keep high-quality data on their product.
The Artificial Intelligence Act bans applications that are deemed “too risky”. Those include the police using AI-powered technology to identify people – although in very serious cases, this could be allowed.
Some types of predictive policing, in which AI is used to predict future crimes, are also banned and systems that track the emotions of students at schools or employees at their workplaces won’t be allowed.
Deepfakes – pictures, video or audio of existing people, places or events – must be labelled to avoid disinformation spreading.
Companies that develop AI for general use, like Google or OpenAI, will have to follow EU copyright law when it comes to training their systems. They will also have to provide detailed summaries of the information they have fed into their models.
The most powerful AI models, like ChatGPT 4 and Google’s Gemini, will face extra scrutiny. The EU says it is worried these powerful AI systems could “cause serious accidents or be misused for…
