EU Lawmakers Pass Draft of AI Act

EU Lawmakers Pass Draft of AI Act

By VentureBeat, April 28, 2023

While a variety of state-based AI-related bills have been passed in the U.S., it is larger government regulation, in the form of the EU AI Act, for which many in the A.I. and the legal communities have been waiting.

After months of negotiations and two years after draft rules were proposed, EU lawmakers have reached an agreement and passed a draft of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Act, which would be the first set of comprehensive laws related to AI regulation. The next stage is called the trilogue, when EU lawmakers and member states will negotiate the final details of the bill.

According to a report, the members of the European Parliament (MEPs) confirmed previous proposals to put stricter obligations on foundation models, a subcategory of "General Purpose AI" that includes tools such as ChatGPT. Under the proposals, companies that make generative AI tools such as ChatGPT would have to disclose if they have used copyrighted material in their systems.

The report cited one significant last-minute change in the draft of the AI Act related to generative AI models, which "would have to be designed and developed in accordance with EU law and fundamental rights, including freedom of expression."

"The AI Act offers EU lawmakers an opportunity to put an end to the use of discriminatory and rights-violating artificial intelligence (AI) systems," said Mher Hakobyan, advocacy advisor on AI regulation at Amnesty International, in a blog post.

From VentureBeat  https://venturebeat.com/ai/eu-lawmakers-pass-draft-of-ai-act-includes-last-minute-change-on-generative-ai-models/