On Thursday, the Internal Market Committee and the Civil Liberties Committee adopted a draft negotiating mandate on the first ever rules for Artificial Intelligence with 84 votes in favour, 7 against and 12 abstentions. In their amendments to the Commission’s proposal, MEPs aim to ensure that AI systems are overseen by people, are safe, transparent, traceable, non-discriminatory, and environmentally friendly. They also want to have a uniform definition for AI designed to be technology-neutral, so that it can apply to the AI systems of today and tomorrow.

How the EU AI Act assesses risk

The current draft of the AI Act, including appendices, is 125 pages long. It provides a risk-based approach – the rules are based on what risk is assumed for a particular technology: minimal, limited, high and unacceptable.

Unacceptable risk: Applications that are a clear threat to human rights, such as facial recognition in public spaces or social credit systems that the state uses to encourage citizens to behave in a certain way are considered an unacceptable risk. They are strictly forbidden.

High risk: According to the regulation, there is a high risk if the health, safety or fundamental rights of EU citizens are at risk. Included are biometric systems, the operation of critical infrastructures and personnel software, for example for applications. High risk could include using AI for facial recognition, legal matters, or sorting CVs during employment processes. These could cause harm or limit opportunities, so they will face higher regulatory standards.

Limited risk: Applications in non-critical areas, such as chatbots for customer service, are considered limited risk. These are only subject to a transparency obligation – users should know that they are dealing with an automated system.

Minimum risk: With many applications there is only a minimal risk, for example with computer games, film recommendations or spam filters. The regulation does not provide for any restrictions here.

Source: European Parliament, BIIA