Both the European Commission and the European Parliament are undertaking more consistent activities to provide a new legal regime for Artificial Intelligence. The White Paper on AI adopted by the European Commission, together with the "Liability for Artificial Intelligence and Other Emerging Digital Technologies" report, serve as an excellent base for further research and implementation of new AI-related provisions. Back in 2017, the European Parliament issued its Recommendations on Civil Law Rules on Robotics

(available here: www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/TA8-2017-0051_EN.html)

which was quite generic and referred more to general principles such as Asimov's laws. However, on 4 May 2020, the European Parliament issued the Draft Report with recommendations to the Commission on a civil liability regime for artificial intelligence which focuses on more practical solutions for the AI legal regime. The Draft Report suggests dividing AI into separate categories depending on the risk they pose. High-risk systems would be subject to "strict" liability according to which the deployer of a Note: This newsletter is for information purposes only. Recipients of this newsletter should not treat the content as a substitute for obtaining specific advice on the topics addressed herein. high-risk AI system should be strictly liable for any harm or damage that was caused by a physical or virtual activity, device or process driven by that system. The low-risk systems would still be subject to fault-based liability. The Draft Report contains an exhaustive list of systems which should be considered high-risk, including vehicles with automation levels 4 and 5, autonomous traffic management systems, autonomous robots and autonomous public places cleaning devices.

Originally published 29 May, 2020

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