European Union (EU) lawmakers and member states reached an agreement on rules governing artificial intelligence (AI).
“Historic! The EU becomes the first continent to set clear rules for the use of AI,” European internal market commissioner Thierry Breton said on Friday night after the conclusion of talks that began on Wednesday.
Breton added on social networking site X, formerly Twitter, that “the AI law is much more than a rulebook, it is a launch pad for EU start-ups and researchers to lead the global AI race”.
The European Commission said in a statement in the early hours of Saturday morning that it welcomes the political agreement reached between the European Parliament and the EU Council on the law, proposed by the Commission in April 2021.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the agreement would “foster responsible innovation in Europe” by “focusing regulation on identifiable risks”.
The agreement includes additions to the European Commission’s initial proposal, such as expanding the list of bans. As for the much-debated use of remote biometric identification, the agreement grants exemptions for the use of such identification by law enforcement authorities in public spaces, provided that certain safeguards are put in place.
The new AI rules also emphasise better protection of rights by obliging those implementing high-risk AI systems to conduct a fundamental rights impact assessment before putting the systems into use.
According to the European Commission, the new AI rules will be “directly applicable in the same way” in all EU member states. National market surveillance authorities will oversee the implementation of the rules at national level, while a new European AI office will be created within the European Commission to ensure coordination at European level.
The EU Council emphasised that following Friday’s agreement, “work will continue at technical level in the coming weeks” to finalise the details of the new regulation.
