- EU lawmakers introduce a landmark law to govern the use of AI in businesses and day-to-day life.
- Some uses of AI, such as using AI for predicting who is more likely to commit a crime, have been banned and some others have been labeled as “high-risk”.
- Companies like OpenAI whose tools are available to the masses will face stricter regulation and will have to be more transparent.
On Wednesday, EU lawmakers gave the final nod to a landmark law called the AI Act that will govern all AI-related concerns in the region. It’s the first-of-its-kind law that will completely change how people use AI in day-to-day businesses.
Since AI has been seeping into almost every industry, including healthcare and law enforcement, it was becoming increasingly important to have some sort of ground rules in place. This law serves that purpose.
The bill was first introduced in 2021 and has been passed by a sweeping majority. The purpose of the law is to make AI more human-centric and ensure that we can continue to reap its benefits while avoiding the dangers.
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What Does This New Law Entail?
This law will be responsible for deciding how AI will be used for different purposes. Some of the uses have been banned (especially the ones that violate the fundamental rights of the citizens) while others that are considered high-risk have received stricter guidelines.
For instance, lawmakers have banned the use of AI to collect biometric data and guess a person’s race, sexual orientation, and political preference. It has also banned the use of AI in social scoring.
Next comes the high-risk categories. This includes the use of AI in education, recruitment, and government services. While technically you can use AI in all these cases, it will come with an extra set of rules and will require more transparency on the developer’s part.
Popular AI companies like OpenAI that create mass AI tools will be subjected to stricter regulation. They’ll be required to maintain more transparency with the government in terms of what their tool can do.
Since tools like these are often used to create manipulated pictures, this law has made it mandatory for AI-generated images to be labeled to minimize the spread of misinformation.
Although the EU is the first to create AI-related laws, China too has already started working on a draft of AI laws. President Joe Biden has also realized the dangers of unregulated AI use and asked developers to share all AI-related updates with the government.
Almost all global leaders realize the dangers of AI. Many of them, including the US, will have a lot to catch up on after this. The same goes for the UK. Although the country hosted an AI safety summit last year, it has yet to create any law regarding it.
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Krishi Chowdhary Journalist 
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