European Parliament votes in favour of regulating use of AI across bloc

In a historic move, the European Parliament voted in favour of placing regulations on the usage of artificial intelligence (AI) systems across the bloc of nations on Wednesday.

The voting has started the process of passing the Artificial Intelligence Act of the European Union, which will be the first of its kind ever-introduced globally.

The law has been drafted to protect fundamental civil rights and safeguard people from the threats they face to health and safety due to AI while fostering simultaneously innovation of the technology.

During vote, the parliament adopted the AI Act with 499 votes in favour, 28 against and 93 abstentions. The regulation is far from becoming law, but it is likely to be one of the first formal rules for the technology globally.

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How will the new law work?

The measures, which have been in discussion since 2021, but gained momentum after the emergence of popular AI chatbots like the ChatGPT, would classify the systems based on AI based on the four levels of risk, which range from minimal to unacceptable.

The law is aimed at protecting people from social scoring systems that can judge them based on their appearance or their behaviour, and applications which can engage in vulnerable people's subliminal manipulation.

The officials are also considering the predictive policing tools, that use data to forecast potential perpetrators of crimes in future, as a no-go, while the ban on remote facial recognition and biometric identification in public has been widened by the lawmakers.

What will happen to ChatGPT?

The majority of systems, based on AI, which has already become a part of the everyday lives of people, including video games, spam filters or text generators such as ChatGTP, have been kept in the low- or no-risk category.

"We don't want mass surveillance, we don't want social scoring, we don't want predictive policing in the European Union, full stop. That's what China does, not us," said Dragos Tudorache, a Romanian member of the European Parliament who is co-leading its work on the AI Act.

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How will the measures be enforced by the EU?

Companies found violating the laws will have to pay fines of up to €30 million ($33 million) or 6 per cent of their annual global revenue, which can go up to billions in the case of tech giants like Google and Microsoft.

The 27 member states of the EU will enforce the rules, which lawmakers believe will be seen as a constructive framework by the powerful AI developers within which they can further develop the technology.

Generative AI developers will be required to submit their systems for review before releasing them commercially.

"We as a union are doing something that I think is truly historic, which is to bring about rules and guardrails for the evolution of a technology that has a lot of potential for good in our economies," lawmaker Tudorache said while speaking to DW.

"At the same time, we see more and more risks. What we're doing with this legislation is to try and curtail these risks, mitigate them and put very clear rules in place that will ensure transparency and trust," he added.

What will be the next steps?

The new AI laws of the EU still need final approval from national parliamentarians and member states, which is not likely to happen till 2025.

"It's true that these laws will not come into effect by the elections next year, but we have other rules that are already in place. But if we craft this legislation right, if we articulate the obligations and the rights in these regulations the right way, they will stand the test of time. We are not regulating the technology itself, we are regulating the use of technology – and that transparency is the same and it's going to be the same now or in five years' time," said Tudorache.

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