The European Parliament and Council have reached a provisional agreement on the Artificial Intelligence Act, aiming to ensure AI respects fundamental rights and boosts innovation. The Act bans certain AI applications, including biometric categorisation systems and untargeted scraping of facial images. It also sets obligations for high-risk AI systems, such as those with potential harm to health, safety, and democracy. Non-compliance can lead to fines ranging from 35 million euros or 7% of global turnover to 7.5 million or 1.5% of turnover. Co-rapporteurs Brando Benifei and Dragos Tudorache emphasised the Act’s importance in protecting rights and promoting innovation.
Comprehensive Rules for Trustworthy AI: The Artificial Intelligence Act
The European Parliament and Council negotiators have reached a provisional agreement on the Artificial Intelligence Act. This regulation aims to ensure that fundamental rights, democracy, the rule of law, and environmental sustainability are protected from high-risk AI, while promoting innovation and positioning Europe as a key player in the field. The rules establish obligations for AI based on its potential risks and level of impact.
Banned AI Applications
Recognising the potential threat to citizens’ rights and democracy posed by certain applications of AI, the co-legislators agreed to prohibit several applications. These include biometric categorisation systems that use sensitive characteristics, untargeted scraping of facial images from the internet or CCTV footage to create facial recognition databases, emotion recognition in the workplace and educational institutions, social scoring based on social behaviour or personal characteristics, AI systems that manipulate human behaviour to circumvent their free will, and AI used to exploit the vulnerabilities of people.
Law Enforcement Exemptions
Negotiators agreed on a series of safeguards and narrow exceptions for the use of biometric identification systems in publicly accessible spaces for law enforcement purposes, subject to prior judicial authorisation and for strictly defined lists of crime. The use of “real-time” and “post-remote” biometric identification would be limited in time and location, and used strictly for targeted searches of victims or suspects of serious crimes.
Obligations for High-Risk Systems
For AI systems classified as high-risk due to their significant potential harm to health, safety, fundamental rights, environment, democracy and the rule of law, clear obligations were agreed. These include a mandatory fundamental rights impact assessment, among other requirements, applicable also to the insurance and banking sectors. AI systems used to influence the outcome of elections and voter behaviour are also classified as high-risk. Citizens will have a right to launch complaints about AI systems and receive explanations about decisions based on high-risk AI systems that impact their rights.
Guardrails for General Artificial Intelligence Systems
General-purpose AI (GPAI) systems, and the GPAI models they are based on, will have to adhere to transparency requirements as initially proposed by Parliament. These include drawing up technical documentation, complying with EU copyright law and disseminating detailed summaries about the content used for training. For high-impact GPAI models with systemic risk, Parliament negotiators managed to secure more stringent obligations.
Measures to Support Innovation and SMEs
The agreement promotes so-called regulatory sandboxes and real-world-testing, established by national authorities to develop and train innovative AI before placement on the market. This is to ensure that businesses, especially SMEs, can develop AI solutions without undue pressure from industry giants controlling the value chain.
Sanctions and Entry into Force
Non-compliance with the rules can lead to fines ranging from 35 million euro or 7% of global turnover to 7.5 million or 1.5 % of turnover, depending on the infringement and size of the company. The agreed text will now have to be formally adopted by both Parliament and Council to become EU law. Parliament’s Internal Market and Civil Liberties committees will vote on the agreement in a forthcoming meeting.
“Following the deal, co-rapporteur Brando Benifei (S&D, Italy) said: “It was long and intense, but the effort was worth it. Thanks to the European Parliament’s resilience, the world’s first horizontal legislation on artificial intelligence will keep the European promise – ensuring that rights and freedoms are at the centre of the development of this ground-breaking technology. Correct implementation will be key – the Parliament will continue to keep a close eye, to ensure support for new business ideas with sandboxes, and effective rules for the most powerful models”.
Co-rapporteur Dragos Tudorache (Renew, Romania) said: “The EU is the first in the world to set in place robust regulation on AI, guiding its development and evolution in a human-centric direction. The AI Act sets rules for large, powerful AI models, ensuring they do not present systemic risks to the Union and offers strong safeguards for our citizens and our democracies against any abuses of technology by public authorities. It protects our SMEs, strengthens our capacity to innovate and lead in the field of AI, and protects vulnerable sectors of our economy. The European Union has made impressive contributions to the world; the AI Act is another one that will significantly impact our digital future”.
Quick Summary
The European Parliament and Council have reached a provisional agreement on the Artificial Intelligence Act, which aims to ensure that AI in Europe is safe, respects fundamental rights and democracy, and promotes innovation. The Act includes prohibitions on certain AI applications, such as social scoring and manipulation of human behaviour, establishes obligations for high-risk AI systems, and sets fines for non-compliance, while also providing measures to support innovation and small businesses.
- The European Parliament and Council have reached a provisional agreement on the Artificial Intelligence Act, aiming to ensure that AI in Europe is safe, respects fundamental rights and democracy, and promotes business growth.
- The Act bans certain AI applications that pose a threat to citizens’ rights and democracy, including biometric categorisation systems, untargeted scraping of facial images, emotion recognition in workplaces and schools, social scoring, and AI systems that manipulate human behaviour or exploit vulnerabilities.
- The Act allows for limited use of biometric identification systems by law enforcement, subject to strict conditions and prior judicial authorisation.
- High-risk AI systems, including those used to influence election outcomes, will be subject to clear obligations, including a mandatory fundamental rights impact assessment. Citizens will have the right to launch complaints about these systems.
- General-purpose AI systems will have to adhere to transparency requirements, including technical documentation and compliance with EU copyright law.
- The Act includes measures to support innovation and SMEs, such as regulatory sandboxes and real-world testing.
- Non-compliance with the rules can lead to fines ranging from 35 million euro or 7% of global turnover to 7.5 million or 1.5% of turnover.
- Co-rapporteurs Brando Benifei (S&D, Italy) and Dragos Tudorache (Renew, Romania) have praised the Act as a world-first in robust AI regulation.
