Last Mile Trouble: What Needs To Be Sorted in EU AI Act Before Next Week’s Trilogue Talks
Lawmakers are nowhere close to finalizing the principles and standards governing companies’ approach to AI development in the EU under the AI Act.
- The AI Act will undergo a fifth round of trilogue talks on December 6, 2023.
- Lawmakers are nowhere close to finalizing the principles and standards governing companies’ approach to AI development in the EU.
- Spiceworks News & Insights looks at where the hold-up is.
The European Union’s Artificial Intelligence or AI Act is the first legislation of its kind to regulate the development and application of artificial intelligence. The fresh legislation has been subject to four trilogue talks between the EU Council, the European Parliament, and the European Commission so far since the European Parliament adopted it in June 2023.
The AI Act is expected to undergo a fifth round of trilogue talks scheduled on December 6, 2023, before it can be finalized for the 27-member nation bloc, previously expected to be done in late 2023.
It is already late 2023, but lawmakers aren’t close to finalizing the principles and standards governing companies’ approach to AI development. Meanwhile, the U.S., the U.K., and the G7, with President Biden’s executive order, the safety summit, and the agreement on AI code of conduct, respectively, have suddenly leaped ahead despite the EU working on AI regulations since before the launch of ChatGPT.
Now, three of the biggest EU member states have voiced their apprehensions about a section of the proposed AI Act that governs foundational models. The new regulation has also faced roadblocks over a few other hotly debated issues.
Why Is the EU AI Act Stuck?
Disagreement of foundational models
France, Germany, and Italy aren’t too keen on signing up for something that would put their AI startups under extra scrutiny through regulations on foundational models, such as large language models.
The deadlock was so severe that Members of the European Parliament (MEP) walked out of the meeting with representatives. In October, Romanian MEP Dragoș Tudorache told Euronews, “The contentious issue relates to foundation models. The original European Commission (EC) proposal and the Council’s opening stance on the AI Act did not deal with this, but in the EP, we introduced a new regime into the text to impose stringent obligations on apex models of AI.”
The issue is that as opposed to the original version of the proposed legislation, which only brought bigger AI companies under regulation about foundational models, the new version encompasses smaller companies, including startups.
This last-second attempt by big tech to exempt the future of AI (LLMs) would make the EU AI Act the laughing-stock of the world, not worth the paper it’s printed on. After years of hard work, the EU has the opportunity to lead a world waking up to the need to regulate these… https://t.co/tD7r4zpRh0
— Max Tegmark (@tegmark) November 14, 2023
The three countries, of which France and Germany have produced Europe’s most successful AI companies so far, argued that it would hamper AI innovation.
Use of biometric identification (under Article 5) in public spaces
The original proposal for the AI Act exempted the use of biometric authentication. The new proposal prohibits all real-time biometric identification in publicly accessible places, barring a few exceptions. Multiple member states are demanding more exceptions for law enforcement purposes.
See More: The What, How, and Why of AI Governance
AI Act enforcement
Enforcing the AI Act in congruence with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) entails specific responsibilities given the scope of the two legislations overlaps. Moreover, requirements stipulated in GDPR and the AI Act can be antithetical to companies coming under the purview of the two laws.
Specifically, the AI Act recognizes that AI systems need large amounts of data and allows data processing under Article 10(5), which can conflict with Article 9 of GDPR because the latter requires the data subject to give “explicit consent to the processing of those personal data for one or more specified purposes.” Meanwhile, the EU AI Act doesn’t explain how consent will be acquired.
An analysis by the Future of Privacy Forum (FPF) further delineated gaps in multiple areas, including where the regulatory burden lies in the case of high-risk AI systems (HRAIS). For instance, users and not AI providers should be held accountable for verifying the accuracy and correctness of automated decisions, according to a Slovak Constitutional Court.
“The AI Act sporadically mentions the interplay with the GDPR’s rules on lawful grounds and exemptions from the prohibition on processing special categories of data,” the FPF said. “However, it fails to elaborate on the conditions for collecting personal data from publicly available sources for mandatory training, validation, and testing of HRAIS.”
What Happens if the EU Doesn’t Finalize the EU AI Act Before 2023 Ends?
Coming out of the October 27 trilogue, Kai Zenner, head of the office and digital policy advisor to the German Member of the European Parliament Axel Voss, said that the AI Act has a 50-50 chance of passage.
In a post on X, Voss refuted that the European Parliament could accept the changes Germany, France, and Italy proposed.
We cannot accept the 🇩🇪🇫🇷🇮🇹 proposal on #foundationmodels.
Also, even minimum standards for self regulation would need to cover transparency, cybersecurity and information obligations – which is exactly what we ask for in the #AIAct.
We cannot close our eyes to the risks. https://t.co/GmU4joNCS5
— Axel Voss MdEP (@AxelVossMdEP) November 21, 2023
The European Parliament is slated for elections in June 2024. Suppose all member states do not agree upon the EU AI Act by the next round of trilogue talks scheduled for December 6, 2023. In that case, the EU’s AI regulation unofficially has a couple more months until February 2024 before its passage is pushed back until after the European Parliament elections, possibly in 2025.
Do you think the EU will untangle the knot on AI Act? Share with us on LinkedIn, X, or Facebook. We’d love to hear from you!
Image source: Shutterstock
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