EU’s First In The World Artificial Intelligence Act Becomes Binding

EU’s First In The World Artificial Intelligence Act Becomes Binding

The organization had established an AI Office of tech experts, lawyers and economists to ensure compliance

The landmark law of the European Union (EU) on artificial intelligence (AI) has come into force and Brussels vows that will drive innovation while protecting the rights of the citizens.

The European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen stated, "With our Artificial Intelligence Act, we create new guardrails not only to protect people and their interests, but also to give business and innovators clear rules and certainty.”

Early this year, the EU adopted the world's first sweeping rules to govern Al, especially powerful systems like OpenAI's ChatGPT after difficult and tense negotiations.

The rules first proposed in 2021, moved earnestly when ChatGPT entered in 2022, showing generative Al's human-like ability to churn out eloquent text within seconds. Other examples of generative Al include Dall-E and Midjourney. These can generate images in nearly any style with simple inputs in everyday language.

While the companies will have to comply by 2026, rules covering AI models like ChatGPT will apply 12 months after the law is enforced.

Strict bans on using Al for predictive policing based on profiling and systems that use biometric information to infer an individual's race, religion or sexual orientation will apply six months after the law becomes binding.

The Artificial Intelligence Act takes a risk-based approach. It means that if a system is high-risk, a company has a stricter set of obligations to fulfil to protect citizens' rights. The higher the risk to Europeans' health or rights, the greater the companies' requirements to protect individuals from harm.

Marcus Evans, a partner at Norton Rose Fulbright remarked, "The geographic scope of the AI Act is broad. Organizations with connections to the EU in their business or customer base will need an Al governance program to identify and comply with their obligations.”

The companies violating the rules on banned practices or data obligations will face fines of up to seven percent of their worldwide annual revenue.