BRUSSELS, Belgium: After a vote this week, European lawmakers agreed to draft and pass tougher new rules regulating artificial intelligence (AI) tools, such as ChatGPT.
Covering the use of facial recognition, biometric surveillance and other AI applications, the European Union’s AI Act will be the world’s first comprehensive legislation governing the technology.
The UE voted to ban the use of facial recognition in public spaces, predictive policing tools, and to impose new transparency measures on generative AI applications, such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
The bill is now expected to move to the next stage of the process, after two years of negotiations, with lawmakers finalizing its details with the European Commission and EU member states.
AI tools will be classified according to their perceived level of risk, from low to unacceptable under the new law.
MEP Dragos Tudorache, one of the parliamentarians responsible for drafting the laws, noted, “It is a delicate deal. But it is a package that I think gives something to everyone that participated in these negotiations. Our societies expect us to do something determined about artificial intelligence,” he said, as quoted by Reuters.
In an interview with Reuters, Greens MEP Kim van Sparrentak said, “This vote is a milestone in regulating AI, and a clear signal from the Parliament that fundamental rights should be a cornerstone of that. AI should serve people, society and the environment, not the other way around,” according to Reuters.
The bill will be put to a plenary vote of the European Parliament in June before final terms are agreed in “trilogue” talks, which will involve representatives of the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union and the European Commission.
After the terms are finalized and the bill becomes law, it will have a grace period of around two years to allow compliance.