NoAt a press conference in Berlin, with the German Economy Minister, Robert Habeck, the also European Commissioner for Competition called for the approval, “quickly”, of a text that is currently being the subject of intense debates in the European Parliament.
“It is important to act quickly. We need our legislation to adapt (to new technologies),” he said.
“There is no time to lose”, he added, expressing the hope that the “Law IA”, a text drawn up by the European Commission, will be approved before the end of the year, waiting for the European Parliament to vote on a common position at a meeting that will take place on Thursday, to be followed by negotiations with the Commission and the Member States.
The EU has been working for years on a draft regulation on AI technologies, which will be the world’s first major legislation to regulate the sector.
The aim is to enable innovation while guaranteeing security and user rights.
The European Commission presented the project in April 2021, but since then, discussions have dragged on in the European Parliament, where advocates of strict regulation and those who propose a lighter approach to encourage the development of AI are clashing.
At the end of 2022, the arrival of the GPT Chat (an Artificial Intelligence system that responds, via written message, to the most varied questions or requests) caused a great stir in the debate, with many MEPs concerned about the fact that the text, which was written before the appearance of this tool, become obsolete.
The new legislation “could apply to AI technologies like GPT Chat”, defended Vestager.
“However, it will not be the end of the AI story, but rather a very, very solid beginning,” he admitted.
The “AI Law” focuses on uses of Artificial Intelligence, some of which will be banned, such as “widespread” surveillance of a population or manipulation of “citizens’ behaviour, opinions or decisions”.
Others would just be regulated, such as “remote biometric identification of people in public places” or systems for prioritizing emergency services, access to educational institutions or recruitment tools.
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