Historical European Anti-AI Act Enters Into Force

On August 1, 2024, the European Artificial Intelligence Act that passed with majority votes in the European Parliament earlier this year, entered into force. This act is the world's first detailed regulation concerning artificial intelligence, setting rules for developing and using AI. The objective of the act is to protect people's fundamental rights and establish a harmonized market in the European Union.

The regulation applies to providers, their representatives, and deployers of AI systems if they are located in the EU or their AI product is used there, as well as importers, distributors, and manufacturers of the AI systems, along with all the other affected persons in the EU.

The act introduces a detailed definition of AI, which is based on the potential risk to people's rights. For instance, AI-enabled recommender systems and spam filters fall into the minimal risk category. Another category, specific transparency risk, includes, for example, chatbots, deep fakes, and biometric categorization systems, which must be labeled as AI-based. AI systems used for recruitment or to assess whether somebody is entitled to get a loan or to run autonomous robots are considered AI with high risk and have to follow strict restrictions. The last category, AI systems of unacceptable risk, contains such types of AI that need to be banned due to posing a threat to people's rights as such AI-based technologies can manipulate human behavior, including, for instance, toys with voice assistance encouraging dangerous behavior of children. 

Additionally, technologies like Open AI's ChatGPT are considered to be general-purpose AI models, and their developers will have to mark that users are interacting with AI.

The majority of rules will come into effect in two years, on August 2, 2026. A shorter term of six months is established for AIs with unacceptable risk, and for generative AIs, there is a six-month period before new provisions are applied. The transitional period will be guided by the AI Pact adopted by the EU.

The expansion of AI use sometimes can indeed be frightening. For instance, a genuine legal act was written by ChatGPT in Brazil. The new European act has been adopted in the EU only, but it will probably affect other regions' regulation of AI, serving as the base and a comprehensive example. 

Find out the details here and here and read the text of the act and join our 80 Level Talent platform and our Telegram channel, follow us on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, TikTok, and Reddit, where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.