EU Tech Tsar Vestager sees political agreement on AI law this year

The European Union is likely to reach a political agreement this year that paves the way for the world’s first major artificial intelligence (AI) law, Margrethe Vestager, head of technical regulation at the bloc, said on Sunday. Stated.

This follows a tentative agreement reached by members of the European Parliament on Thursday to push the EU’s draft artificial intelligence law towards a vote on May 11. it becomes law.

At a press conference after the G7 digital ministerial meeting in Takasaki, Japan, Vestager said the EU AI law would “encourage innovation” as it aims to reduce the risk of social harm from emerging technologies. Said there was.

Regulators around the world are trying to find a balance that allows governments to develop “guardrails” around emerging artificial intelligence technologies without stifling innovation.

“The reason we have these guardrails for high-risk use cases is that cleaning up after misuse by AI is much more expensive and damaging than the use cases of AI itself,” says Vestager. says Mr.

The EU AI law is due to be passed this year, but legal experts say it will take years to come into force. But Vestager said businesses may start to consider the impact of the new law.

“There was no reason to hesitate or wait for legislation to be passed to accelerate the debate needed to bring about change in all systems where AI has the greatest impact,” she told Reuters. said in an interview.

Research on AI has been going on for years, but the sudden popularity of generative AI applications such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Midjourney has prompted legislators to scramble to find ways to regulate uncontrolled growth. became.

Elon Musk-backed organizations and European lawmakers involved in drafting the EU AI law I was asked World leaders work together to find ways to stop chaos caused by advanced AI.

The digital ministers of the G-7 developed countries also agreed on Sunday to adopt “risk-based” regulations on AI. step It could lead to a global agreement on how to regulate AI.

German Transport Minister Volker Wissing said: “It is important that our democracy paves the way and puts in place the rules to protect us from its manipulation. AI should be useful, but we should not be manipulated.”

This year’s G-7 meeting was also attended by representatives from Indonesia, India and Ukraine.