European Parliament Approves EU AI Act, A Landmark Legislation for AI Governance

The European Parliament has approved the EU AI Act, a comprehensive legal framework designed to regulate and supervise artificial intelligence (AI) technologies within the European Union (EU). This is a significant development. The act garnered 499 votes in favor, 28 votes against, and 93 abstentions during the Parliament’s voting on June 14. The bill will then be further refined with each member of the European Parliament before being passed into law. The EU AI Act, which was first put forth by the European Commission on April 21st, lays out extensive guidelines for AI development within the EU.

Promoting Human-Centric and Trustworthy AI

According to a press release from the European Parliament, “The rules aim to promote the uptake of human-centric and trustworthy AI and protect the health, safety, fundamental rights and democracy from its harmful effects.”

Once put into effect, the legislation will impose limitations and exclusions on certain categories of artificial intelligence services and goods. Notably, some technologies—such as biometric monitoring, social scoring systems, predictive policing, “emotion recognition,” and untargeted facial recognition systems—will be outright prohibited. OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Bard are two examples of generative AI models that can be used, provided that their outputs are labelled as such.

High-Risk AI Systems and Further Governance

Any AI system that is determined to pose a serious risk to human health, safety, fundamental rights, the environment, or the electoral process shall be categorized as high risk under the EU AI Act. There will be stricter supervision and regulation over these systems.

Just two weeks after the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) bill’s May 31 implementation, the European Parliament has approved the EU AI Act. Industry leaders have been crucial in promoting legislation in both situations. Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI and a well-known advocate for regulatory oversight of the AI sector, spoke before Congress and emphasized the need for legislation. Altman did, however, also issue a warning to European regulators about over regulatory actions.

The adoption of the EU AI Act marks a critical turning point in the regulation of AI, placing the EU at the forefront of legislative initiatives to secure the ethical and responsible research and application of AI technology.