European Parliament Passes Game-changing AI Law to Safeguard Citizens’ Rights
The European Parliament has recently approved a groundbreaking law that aims to regulate the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and protect the rights of its citizens. This law is classified into different levels of risk, with the highest level having an absolute prohibition on certain AI systems.
One of the main concerns addressed by this law is the potential misuse of AI technology that could harm individuals’ reputation and privacy. For instance, imagine if your facial features were cloned by AI and superimposed on a video showing someone committing a crime. This act could not only damage your reputation but also compromise your freedom. Similarly, the misuse of AI technology in areas such as credit eligibility, health insurance, and employment could have severe implications for individuals’ rights.
The European Parliament’s law on AI sets out to protect health, safety, fundamental rights, and democracy from the harmful effects of AI. It classifies AI systems into four categories, with the highest-risk category being strictly prohibited. This category includes AI systems used for classifying individuals based on their personal characteristics or behaviors, such as assigning social scores or discriminatory labels. It also covers remote biometric identification systems used in public spaces, ensuring that government cameras cannot feed any AI applications without proper authorization from a judge, and only in cases related to serious crimes like terrorism.
Another aspect addressed by the law is the prohibition of AI systems that utilize sensitive personal characteristics like race, gender, marital or immigration status, religion, or political preferences. Police predictive systems that might infringe upon privacy rights or use individuals’ past criminal behavior to predict potential danger are also not allowed.
Furthermore, the law prohibits the use of AI for emotion recognition, border management, and creating facial recognition databases extracted from sources like the internet, social networks, or closed-circuit television. This protects individuals’ right to privacy.
The European Parliament’s law categorizes AI systems with a high risk level, which includes the use of AI in workplace personnel selection, medical devices, and health services. While these areas are not prohibited, they must adhere to certain requirements and obtain the consent of individuals. For example, insurance companies must notify potential clients and obtain their consent before using AI to evaluate their eligibility for medical expense policies. Failure to comply with these regulations may result in penalties for exclusionary and discriminatory practices.
The law also addresses impersonal AI systems like bots and automatic response systems. While there are no specific limitations for these systems, companies are obligated to maintain transparency. This means that if AI is used to generate images or content, it must be clearly identified as such to avoid plagiarism and respect the original creators’ rights.
However, there is still work to be done regarding copyright regulations for texts and images generated by AI models. In the legal domain, products created with AI cannot be copyrighted as exclusive intellectual property. Transparency becomes crucial to differentiate between AI-generated content, which cannot be copyrighted, and content with intellectual authorship.
The European Parliament’s law on AI demonstrates the importance of ethical standards and specific laws to safeguard citizens’ rights in the face of AI’s potential misuse. By addressing various risks and providing clear guidelines, this law seeks to promote the adoption of reliable AI while protecting the welfare and fundamental rights of individuals. This game-changing legislation sets an example for other nations and encourages a responsible and accountable approach to AI development and usage worldwide.
