Brussels, BELGIUM – Today, the European Parliament’s lead Committees adopted their position on the EU Artificial Intelligence (AI) Act, which is set to become the world’s first comprehensive regulatory framework dedicated to AI.
Ahead of the votes by the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) and Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) Committees, the Parliament made some useful improvements to the text. The Act’s definition of AI systems was aligned with that of the OECD, while the threshold for the “high-risk” classification of AI systems was elevated.
Nevertheless, other changes introduced by Parliament mark a clear departure from the AI Act’s actual objective, which is promoting the uptake of AI in Europe. By abandoning the risk-based structure of the Act, Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) dropped the ambition to support AI innovation.
Ever since the AI Act was proposed in 2021, the Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA Europe) has been a strong supporter of the European Commission’s risk-based approach, which seeks to regulate specific AI systems that pose a clear risk rather than assuming that AI in general, or very broad categories, are inherently dangerous.
European AI developers would now be put at a disadvantage compared to their foreign counterparts by MEPs’ changes – such as the broad extension of the list of prohibited AI systems and that of high-risk use cases. While posing very limited risks, or none at all, useful AI applications would now face stringent requirements, or might even be banned.
The high-risk classification of online platforms’ recommender systems and the unnecessary inclusion of copyright requirements in the AI Act, for example, will increase compliance cost for successful companies and have a detrimental effect on innovation.
With a plenary vote by all MEPs set to take place in June, final negotiations with the 27 Member States are expected to begin soon after.
The following can be attributed to CCIA Europe’s Policy Manager, Boniface de Champris:
“CCIA Europe calls on EU lawmakers to maintain the AI Act’s risk-based approach in order to ensure that AI innovation can flourish in the European Union. The best way for the EU to inspire other jurisdictions is by ensuring that new regulation will enable, rather than inhibit, the development of useful AI applications.”