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‘The European Union wants to become the world's super-regulator in AI”, The Economist tells us. This is one of many headlines proliferating everywhere these days. And it is a big deal, no doubt. I've been pointing to the need for better rules on AI in many of my keynotes for quite some time:) And now, Covid-19 has exponentially accelerated technological growth which in turn has finally increased the urgency to regulate technology.
“For now cited high risk examples fall into the following categories: Biometric identification and categorisation of natural persons; Management and operation of critical infrastructure; Education and vocational training; Employment, workers management and access to self-employment; Access to and enjoyment of essential private services and public services and benefits; Law enforcement; Migration, asylum and border control management; Administration of justice and democratic processes.”
Techcrunch – Europe lays out plan for risk-based AI rules to boost trust and uptake
“On artificial intelligence, trust is a must, not a nice to have,” Margrethe Vestager, the European Commission executive vice president who oversees digital policy for the 27-nation bloc, said in a statement. “With these landmark rules, the E.U. is spearheading the development of new global norms to make sure A.I. can be trusted.”
The NY Times – Europe Proposes Strict Rules for Artificial Intelligence
The severest fines, reserved for the most serious breaches of the rules — a fine of up to 6 per cent of a company’s global revenue — might seem valid for those who use AI for something the EU has tried to ban outright. But that heavy penalty also applies to those not meeting the quality requirements for data sets used to train machine-learning models — one of the most common, and insidious, ways for bias to creep in.”
Financial Times – Europe’s push on AI rules aims to recast global tech
The rules have far-reaching implications for major technology companies including Amazon, Google, Facebook and Microsoft that have poured resources into developing artificial intelligence, but also scores of other companies that use the technology in health care, insurance and finance. Governments have used versions of the technology in criminal justice and allocating public services.
THE NY TIMES – EUROPE PROPOSES STRICT RULES FOR ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
It is disappointing to see the leaders of democratic nations viewing AI with fear given the massive opportunities to cure diseases, avoid harms, distribute goods and services more efficiently, and create new jobs,” said Stephen Messer, co-founder and vice chairman of Collective [i], an AI company focused on optimizing the sales process.
Wall Street Journal – Corporate Tech Leaders Are Mixed on EU Artificial Intelligence Bill
Here's a a related quote from Chapter 10 of my book “Technology vs Humanity”:
“We need to define a set of bottom-line digital ethics—ethics that are fit for the Digital Age: open enough not to put the brakes on progress or hamper innovation, yet strong enough to protect our humanness. A compass, not a map, towards a future that will see increasingly powerful technologies first empower, then augment and then increasingly threaten humanity. To this end, I propose that we create a Global Digital Ethics Council (GDEC) tasked with defining what the ground rules and most basic and universal values of such a dramatically different, fully digitized society should be.”
This is also one of my key memes for 2021 – you can watch my new 2021 series here .
There are also transparency requirements for certain use-cases of AI — such as chatbots and deepfakes — where EU lawmakers believe that potential risk can be mitigated by informing users they are interacting with something artificial.
Techcrunch – Europe lays out plan for risk-based AI rules to boost trust and uptake
