In mid-June 2023, the EU Parliament approved the draft of the EU Commission's AI Act. We've summarized the key provisions in the EU AI Act draft for you:

What is the EU AI Act Draft?

The AI Act is a proposal for a regulation establishing harmonized rules for Artificial Intelligence. The European Commission released the draft in April 2021, providing a legal framework for the development, deployment, and use of Artificial Intelligence systems within the EU. In comparison to the original draft, the EU Parliament has made several changes, enhancing certain aspects of the initial proposal.

Key Regulations:

According to the EU AI Act draft, AI applications must be transparent, reliable, and safe, aligning with European fundamental rights and values. To ensure this, AI systems are categorized into four risk classes based on a risk-based approach. The regulation will vary based on the risk class, with an assessment of how much a given AI application jeopardizes European fundamental rights and values.

Entities engaging in "unacceptable AI models," such as Social Scoring (a social credit system awarding points for desirable behavior, similar to China) or Predictive Policing (analyzing and predicting potentially criminal future behavior), are outright prohibited according to the draft. For other risk classes (low risk, limited risk, high risk), the legal framework becomes more comprehensive and stringent as the risk level increases.

Special provisions are outlined for so-called generative Artificial Intelligence, which includes AI applications with general purposes, like ChatGPT.

Violations of these regulations will result in fines, similar to the structure in the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). However, the proposed fines are currently lower and primarily target larger enterprises.

Having Additional Questions on AI?

If you have additional questions regarding AI and law or the EU AI Act draft, feel free to explore our services or reach out via email under office@geuer.at or by phone at +43-1-4380072. We look forward to addressing your inquiries.