One of the most sensitive points has been the use of biometric identification with cameras, and the other, generative AI, which will have to meet transparency criteria.
The institutions of the European Union have agreed this Friday on the artificial intelligence law that allows or prohibits the use of technology depending on the risk it poses to people and that seeks to boost the European industry against giants such as China and the United States.
“The EU artificial intelligence law is a pioneer in the world. A single legal framework for the development of artificial intelligence that can be trusted,” said the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, in a message on social network X.
The agreement was reached after 36 hours of negotiations and will still have to be ratified by the European Parliament and the Council of the EU, the institution that represents European governments.
Surveillance
One of the most sensitive points of the negotiations has been the use that law enforcement agencies will be able to make of biometric identification cameras in public spaces to guarantee national security.
The cameras may be used with prior judicial authorization to prevent a terrorist threat “genuine and foreseeable” or “genuine and present”, meaning that it is occurring at that moment.
They can also be used to locate or identify a person who has committed crimes of terrorism, human trafficking, sexual exploitation or, for example, an environmental crime and to search for the victims of these crimes.
During the negotiations, governments have pushed to expand the list of crimes, while the European Parliament has tried to limit it as much as possible and obtain strong safeguards for fundamental rights.
Prohibited systems
The norm also prohibits all systems of biometric categorization due to political, religious, philosophical beliefs or due to their race and sexual orientation.
Nor will systems that rate people based on their behavior or personal characteristics or artificial intelligence capable of manipulating human behavior be used.
Systems to expand or create facial databases by indiscriminately capturing data through the Internet or audiovisual recordings will also be prohibited. In addition, artificial intelligence systems that can recognize emotions will also be prohibited in workplaces or schools.
Generative AI
The other big issue that has focused the negotiations is the regulation of generative artificial intelligence systems, on which models such as ChatGPT, from the company OpenAI, or Bard, from Google, are based.
They will have to comply transparency criteriasuch as specifying whether a text, song or photograph has been generated through artificial intelligence and ensuring that the data used to train the systems respects copyright.
Initially, the law was not intended to regulate these types of systems, because they had not yet become popular when Brussels proposed the law in April 2021, but community institutions have seen the need to legislate them since the outbreak of ChatGPT last year.
European AI Office
The regulation provides for the creation of the European Artificial Intelligence Office, which will coordinate the use of technology between national authorities and will be advised by a panel of scientists and civil society organizations.
The law is scheduled to come into force in 2026 but will apply in phases: The European office will be created immediately, the ban on banned artificial intelligence systems will reach six months, and the requirements for generative AI systems and models will reach 12.
The regulation provides for fines ranging from 35 million euros or 7% of the companies’ global business volume, to 7.5 million euros or 1.5% of the companies’ global business volume.
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