After lengthy negotiations, the European Parliament finally approved the AI Act on 13 March 2024. The adoption of the regulation is a milestone event that all EU countries and their citizens have been waiting for. It will mean that the EU will be the first to introduce a comprehensive regulation dealing with the use of artificial intelligence. The majority of Members of the European Parliament voted in favour of the AI Act, with 523 in favour, 46 against and 49 abstentions.
The regulation that was passed maintained the most important principles of the AI Act, i.e. the classification of systems using artificial intelligence on the basis of the level of risk generated. In this case, four levels of such risk are distinguished: 1) unacceptable risk; 2) high risk; 3) limited risk; 4) minimal or no risk.
One of the additional goals of the AI Act is to prevent disinformation and fake news. Accordingly, content created by so-called generative AI (e.g. ChatGPT) has to be clearly labelled as such. Furthermore, the AI Act Regulation will establish a new body – the European Council on Artificial Intelligence. National AI authorities will also have to be established in EU Member States to monitor compliance with the new regulations.
It is also worth noting that while regulations are directly applicable under EU law, in this case, the provisions will also have to be partially implemented in the Member States within two years of publication of the regulations in the Official Journal of the EU.
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