Agreement between European Government for Formulation of Rules on Artificial Intelligence

Europe is going to create new rules on artificial intelligence, including new regulations on governments’ use of artificial intelligence in biometric systems and AI-powered software such as ChatGPT.

After this agreement, the European Union will be the first major power in the world to implement regulations related to artificial intelligence.

Agreement came after 15 hours of negotiations / discussion on Friday 08 December, 2023 between European government and members of the European Parliament. Both will finalize the details of the rules in the coming days.

European Commissioner Thierry Breton said in a press conference that Europe has taken the lead in this matter, understood its importance and set a standard for the word. He said he thinks it is a historic day.

Under the agreement, ChatGPT or other artificial intelligence systems will conform their initial models to transparency regulations before launching their products on the market.

These include developing a technical document, complying with EU copyright laws and providing details on how artificial intelligence models are trained.

In addition, critical AI-based models, which are at risk of disrupting the system, will report critical events to the European Commission, in addition to assessment, mitigation and testing, when that will improve cyber security and your energy use.

Following recent developments, governments can conduct biometric surveillance in case of an untoward incident.

In other cases, if there is a threat of terrorism or to investigate the suspects of heinous crimes, it can also be used.

The agreement bans many practices including cognitive behavioral manipulation, i.e. making computers think like humans, using anyone’s photos from the Internet.

In addition, it is against the rules to identify CCTV footage and biometric systems based on political, religious, philosophical views, sexual behavior or race.

Business group digital Europe has criticized the regulations as placing more burdens on companies.

While a privacy advocacy group has criticized governments for allowing the public to use facial recognition technology.

Ella Jacob Voska, policy advisor at the European digital advisor at the European Digital Rights Group, said in a statement that while the European Parliament has tried to mitigate these problems, work on regulations related to biometric surveillance and people’s identification has not improved.

The law will come into the force next year when the European Parliament and European governments approve it.

Governments around the world are considering introducing regulations on artificial intelligence software that communicates like humans.

EU law can thus become a model for governments around the world, including the United States.