On 13th March 2024 the European Parliament endorsed the EU Artificial Intelligence Act, with MEPs voting 523 in favour, 46 against, and with 49 abstentions.
The regulation is still subject to a ‘final lawyer-linguist check’ and also needs to be formally endorsed by the European Council. It will enter into force twenty days after its publication in the official Journal, and be fully applicable 24 months after its entry into force, except for bans on prohibited practises, which will apply six months after the entry into force date; codes of practise (nine months after entry into force); general-purpose AI rules including governance (12 months after entry into force); and obligations for high-risk systems (36 months).
According to the European Commission the EU AI Act aims to:
- Address risks specifically created by AI applications;
- Prohibit AI practices that pose unacceptable risks;
- Determine a list of high-risk applications;
- Set clear requirements for AI systems for high-risk applications;
- Define specific obligations deployers and providers of high-risk AI applications;
- Require a conformity assessment before a given AI system is put into service or placed on the market;
- Put enforcement in place after a given AI system is placed into the market;
- establish a governance structure at European and national level.
A risk-based approach will be used to assess AI solutions, which will include four levels:
- Unacceptable risk
- High risk
- Limited risk
- Minimal risk.
In addition regulators will also consider systemic risks which could arise from general-purpose AI models, including large generative AI models, which are already being widely incorporated into many other AI solutions. “Very capable or widely used models” could create systemic risks says the European Commission.
Who is impacted by the AI Act?
The Artificial Intelligence Act will apply to both public and private organizations inside and outside the EU ‘as long as the AI system is placed on the Union market or its use affects people located in the EU’.
As such, the AI Act will create governance and compliance requirements for developers, providers, and organizations that use AI (termed deployers by the European Commission).
There will also be a requirement for the reporting of ‘serious incidents and malfunctioning’.
