May 23, 2024 | less than a minute read

EU Formally Adopts AI Act

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Mitzi Hill

Partner

Get in touch

Mitzi Hill

Partner

The Council of Europe has voted to adopt the AI Act that was finalized earlier this spring, meaning that the Act can now be formally published and become effective. It will be the first comprehensive AI law in the world. The Act is designed to regulate AI systems on a sliding scale: the greater the potential for harm, the more heavily regulated the system will be. The Act defines AI systems and outlines several levels of risk to humans in use of AI.

Why It Matters

Like its groundbreaking privacy law, the EU's AI law is likely to affect American companies in many ways. The EU law can be cited for best practices. It will probably spur copycat legislation in the US at either the federal or state level. And it will directly regulate any American business engaging in covered activities in the EU. All this means one more compliance scheme for American companies with EU contacts.

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The new law categorises different types of artificial intelligence according to risk. AI systems presenting only limited risk would be subject to very light transparency obligations, while high-risk AI systems would be authorised, but subject to a set of requirements and obligations to gain access to the EU market. AI systems such as, for example, cognitive behavioural manipulation and social scoring will be banned from the EU because their risk is deemed unacceptable. The law also prohibits the use of AI for predictive policing based on profiling and systems that use biometric data to categorise people according to specific categories such as race, religion, or sexual orientation.