EU Approves Groundbreaking AI Act

EU has finalized the AI Act a historic and pioneering regulatory framework for artificial intelligence.

The European Union has improved the regulatory framework for artificial intelligence (AI) as member states voted to accept the final language of the EU’s AI Act.

In 2023, Thierry Breton the Commissioner for the Internal Market of the European Union, verified that all 27 member states endorsed the political agreement reached in December. In a post that he made on social media platform X, he stated that the AI Act is both historical and a world-first.

The AI Act is a risk-based framework for regulating applications of artificial intelligence. The agreement addresses the use of artificial intelligence by the government in biometric surveillance, the appropriate way to regulate AI systems such as ChatGPT, and the transparency criteria that must be adhered to before entering the market.

In December, the stakeholders made efforts to translate the agreed-upon principles into a final compromise document for approval by parliamentarians. These efforts culminated with the “coreper” vote on February 2, which is a vote of the permanent representatives of all member states.

The appearance of deepfakes on social media and the blurring of the border between reality and fiction in public discourse have been sources of great concern for experts. Artificial intelligence algorithms generate deepfake videos that appear real but are trained on online material.

During her speech on Friday, Margrethe Vestager, Executive Vice President of the European Commission for a Europe Fit for the Digital Age, stated that the agreement reached on Friday represents an important step toward the Artificial Intelligence Act.

“Based on a simple idea: The riskier the AI, the greater the liabilities for developers. For example, if used to sort applicants for a job or be admitted to an education program. That’s why the #AI Act focuses on the high-risk cases.”

France’s withdrawal of its objection to the Artificial Intelligence Act marked the achievement of the deal on Friday, as stated by Margrethe Vestager. Furthermore, on January 30th, Germany expressed its support for the act after Volker Wissing, the Federal Minister for Digital Affairs and Transport, announced that a compromise had been achieved.

An important EU lawmaker committee decided on February 13 to move the Artificial Intelligence Act forward toward becoming a law. The European Parliament is expected to vote on the Artificial Intelligence Act in either March or April.

The implementation is anticipated in the year 2026, with certain elements going into force earlier. The European Commission is currently establishing an Artificial Intelligence Office to monitor compliance with a collection of high-impact foundational models that are considered to pose systemic risks.

In addition, it revealed plans to provide assistance to local artificial intelligence developers, such as by enhancing the European Union’s supercomputer network for the purpose of training generative AI models.