EU committee greenlights world's first AI legislation

The European Union (EU) Committee’s endorsement follows EU countries’ voting to approve the final text of the EU’s AI Act.

Legislators in the European Parliament approved the preliminary agreement on groundbreaking regulations for artificial intelligence (AI) on Feb. 13. This sets the stage for the world’s first legislation on this technology, with a legislative assembly vote scheduled for April.

The approval by the Internal Market and Civil Liberties Committees was reached with a vote of 71-8. The AI Act, as it is commonly known, intends to establish guidelines for a technology employed across various industries, including banking, automotive, electronics, aviation, security, and law enforcement.

The regulations will oversee foundational models or generative AI, such as the one developed by OpenAI and supported by Microsoft. These are AI systems trained on extensive data sets, capable of learning from new data for diverse tasks.

‼️ AI Act takes a step forward:
MEPs in @EP_Justice & @EP_SingleMarket have endorsed the provisional agreement on an Artificial Intelligence Act that ensures safety and complies with fundamental rights https://t.co/EbXtLBfIoY@brandobenifei @IoanDragosT pic.twitter.com/J3NXRhxd9p

— LIBE Committee Press (@EP_Justice) February 13, 2024

The endorsement follows EU countries’ approval, secured by France’s objection withdrawal, which led to concessions aimed at reducing the administrative load on high-risk AI systems and providing enhanced protection for business secrets just 10 days ago.

Following the December political agreement, efforts began to transform agreed-upon positions into a final compromise text for approval by lawmakers, concluding with the “coreper” vote on Feb. 2, which is a vote of the permanent representatives of all member states.

The European Parliament Committee on Civil Liberties referred to the endorsement as AI taking a step forward in a post on the X social platform.

Related: Singapore becoming AI hub with commercial models in local languages

The AI Act is set to proceed toward legislation with a vote by a crucial EU lawmaker committee on Feb. 13, followed by a European Parliament vote in March or April. It is expected to be applied in 2026, with specific provisions taking effect earlier.

A group of businesses and tech companies issued a joint letter to the European Union regulators warning against over-policing robust artificial intelligence systems at the expense of innovation.

The letter, sent on Nov. 23 and signed by 33 companies operating in the EU, emphasized that overly strict regulations on foundation models such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and general-purpose AI (GPAI) might discourage essential innovation in the region.

The European Commission is taking steps to establish an AI Office to monitor compliance with a group of high-impact foundational models considered to have systemic risk. Additionally, it unveiled measures to support local AI developers, such as upgrading the EU’s supercomputer network for generative AI model training.