EU has reached preliminary agreement on regulatory generative AI tools: "most comprehensive" rules of its kind to date
CTOnews.com, December 9 (Xinhua)-- EU officials reached an interim agreement on the artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act) on Friday, local time, at a time when countries around the world are scrambling to deal with the risks brought by the rapid development of AI, according to reports from the Washington Post, Engadget and other foreign media. It would be the most comprehensive regulatory agreement for AI in the region and the broadest and most far-reaching bill of its kind to date.
Thierry Breton, head of the EU's internal market, announced in an article on platform X on Friday (CTOnews.com note: early this morning, Beijing time) that representatives from the European Commission, the European Parliament and 27 member states have agreed to impose a series of controls on ChatGPT, Bard and other generative AI that can produce content according to instructions.
Although the draft legislation still needs to be formally approved by EU member states and parliaments, it marks a key step in EU policy: it will regulate machine learning, the development and dissemination of AI models, and have an impact on their applications in education, employment, health care and other fields.
The development of AI will be divided into four categories, divided by the degree of social risk that each category may bring: minimum, limited risk, high risk, and prohibition.
Prohibition: includes any behavior that circumvents the wishes of users, targets protected groups, or provides real-time biometric tracking (such as facial recognition).
High risk: includes any content "designed to be used as a product safety component" or for specific applications such as critical infrastructure, education, legal / judicial affairs, and employee recruitment.
At the same time, chatbots such as ChatGPT, Bard and Bing fall into the "limited risk" category.
The European Commission wrote in the agreement that AI should not be an "end" in itself, but a tool for the service of mankind, and its ultimate goal is for the well-being of mankind. Therefore, AI on the EU market or AI rules that otherwise affect EU citizens should be "people-oriented" and make people believe that the use of technology is "safe and in accordance with the law".
