Two years since it was first proposed, the European Parliament approved a landmark law this week that requires generative AI(GenAI) systems to be reviewed before their commercial release. The step clears a major hurdle for pushing the so-called “EU’s AI Act” to become law, that’ll bring about huge implications for developers of GenAI models.
On Wednesday, EU Parliament passed the AI Act with 499 votes in favor, 28 against and 93 abstentions. The move is considered as the first crucial step in putting forth a comprehensive set of regulations towards safeguarding the use of AI technologies that may pose risks to society.
The draft is expected to serve as the basis for other regions trying to adopt similar regulations. In particular, the “risk-based approach” used by European lawmakers to justify a ban, could serve as a precedent case for other regions. During situations deemed as a “high risk” for example, the EU may ban AI tools that could be used to sway political opinion during election period that controls the types of posts, photos and videos people see on social networks via recommendation algorithms.
A strong, unified front among EU lawmakers were evident in provisions that prohibit real-time biometric identification and surveillance systems from all public settings. Despite this, contentious issues regarding the AI Act remain. There are reports the latest draft adopted a tougher tone compared to the initial version, prompting some EU member states to become skeptical of an outright ban on grounds of national security and military purposes.
During the next phase of negotiations, parliamentary discussions are also expected to be directed towards coming up with measures that’ll help prevent the abuse of contents created with AI tools such as ChatGPT and Midjourney.
Industry experts are expected to assess in detail the draft’s impact on various sectors trying to embrace AI and automation technology. Google Cloud’s Customer Engineering Head, David Forden, projected the concept of GenAI will be applicable for the automation of data centers such as in the provisioning and managing cloud resources as well as the detection of security threats. Due to the vast GenAI potential, the technology has already created an AI gold rush, prompting tech giants around the world including Alibaba Cloud to develop their own GenAI versions.
The final step for the EU’s AI Act to become law, is for negotiators at EU institutions, such as the EU executive body and 27 member states, to fine tune the draft’s details by the year’s end. Pundits expect its real-life application to come as early as 2026.