The European Parliament voted Wednesday to adopt its negotiating position on the Artificial Intelligence Act, which would regulate the use of AI systems within the bloc. File Photo by Patrick Seeger/EPA-EFE
June 14 (UPI) -- The European Parliament voted Wednesday to adopt its final negotiating position on the Artificial Intelligence Act, which would regulate AI systems created and used inside the bloc. The measure passed 499-28 with 93 abstentions.
"The rules would ensure that AI developed and used in Europe is fully in line with EU rights and values including human oversight, safety, privacy, transparency, non-discrimination and social and environmental wellbeing," the EU Parliament said in a press release Wednesday.
Among the proposed regulations are a complete ban on AI-powered "real-time" remote biometric surveillance, predictive policing and emotion recognition. The act would outlaw AI with so-called "social scoring" and abolish the use of biometric data related to race, citizenship status, and political affiliations.
The regulations would only allow for so-called "post" remote biometric systems to be used by law enforcement with the stipulation that doing so would require judicial approval.
The practice of scraping data from CCTV cameras to create recognition databases would also be outlawed as it is seen as a privacy violation.
AI systems like ChatGPT would have to reveal if content is AI generated and would have to distinguish deepfake images from authentic images.
"Detailed summaries of the copyrighted data used for their training would also have to be made publicly available," the EU Parliament said.
The new regulations would also seek to increase public accountability for AI-powered systems.
"MEPs want to boost citizens' right to file complaints about AI systems and receive explanations of decisions based on high-risk AI systems that significantly impact their fundamental rights," the EU Parliament said.
The EU's AI Office would be in charge of monitoring compliance.
So-called sandbox spaces would be used to test AI for potential risks to the public and exemptions would be made for AI being used strictly for research purposes.
The EU's competition chief, Margrethe Vestager, told BBC she is concerned that AI could reinforce discrimination.
"If it's a bank using it to decide whether I can get a mortgage or not, or if its social services on your municipality, then you want to make sure that you're not being discriminated because of your gender or your color or your postal code," Vestager said.
The proposed law will now move to the European Council, the blocs executive branch, for further negotiations.
