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On 9 September, in accordance with the Regulation on artificial intelligence ("AI Act") 1, the French Ministry of Economy and Finance unveiled the list of national authorities responsible for artificial intelligence and the division of their respective powers 2.
The diagram presented by Bercy distinguishes between the authorities responsible for :
- prohibited practices under Article 5 of the AI Act ;
- specific transparency obligations under Article 50 of the AI Act ;
- high-risk AI systems ("AIS") covered by Annex I of the AI Act ;
- high-risk AIS covered by Annex III of the AI Act.
As specified by the Directorate-General for Enterprise (DGE), this division ensures that AIS are supervised "[...] by the administrations, agencies and authorities with sectoral competence or relevance".
For example, the French data protection authority (CNIL) will have jurisdiction over prohibited practices based on "real-time remote biometric identification for law enforcement purposes", or over high-risk AIS listed in Annex III used in employment and workforce management. As regards high-risk AIS used in the field of critical infrastructure, they will fall within the remit of Senior defence and security officials of the Ministry of Economy and Finance and the Ministry of Territorial Planning and Ecological Transition.
It should be noted that the Directorate-General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control (DGCCRF) is responsible for the operational coordination of market surveillance authorities and is thus designated as the single point of contact, as provided for in Article 70(2) of the RIA. The DGE is responsible, in particular, for strategic coordination.
Finally, the National Agency for Information System Security (Anssi) and the Digital Regulation Expertise Centre (PEReN) will support the authorities in their tasks of monitoring the compliance of AIS, thanks to the establishment of a "pool of shared technical expertise".
This division of responsibilities must now be approved by Parliament as part of a draft bill.
Footnotes
1 Regulation on artificial intelligence, UE 2024/1689
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