The EU is the first state and state like entity to regulate artificial intelligence. The European Union took great pride in being the first to do so, posting the news on X.
The law would require transparency from AI companies, and also seek to protect jobs from automation. The NY Times reports:
European Union policymakers agreed on Friday to a sweeping new law to regulate artificial intelligence, one of the world’s first comprehensive attempts to limit the use of a rapidly evolving technology that has wide-ranging societal and economic implications.
The law, called the A.I. Act, sets a new global benchmark for countries seeking to harness the potential benefits of the technology, while trying to protect against its possible risks, like automating jobs, spreading misinformation online and endangering national security. The law still needs to go through a few final steps for approval, but the political agreement means its key outlines have been set.
OpenAI’s own COO downplayed the impact of AI on productivity. This could also have been to reduce regulatory oversight and hostility from politicians who would want to preserve jobs. Fox Business continues:
Generative AI systems like OpenAI’s ChatGPT have exploded into the world’s consciousness, dazzling users with the ability to produce human-like text, photos and songs but raising fears about the risks the rapidly developing technology poses to jobs, privacy and copyright protection and even human life itself.
The accord requires foundation models such as ChatGPT and general purpose AI systems (GPAI) to comply with transparency obligations before they are put on the market. These include drawing up technical documentation, complying with EU copyright law and disseminating detailed summaries about the content used for training.
The copyright law compliance will be the biggest legal piece of compliance. With this blueprint, further regulation of AI is likely especially since the EUs market share power is so large.
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