(by Valentina Brini) The date of
December 7 had been marked in red on the calendar, but 22 hours
of negotiations were not sufficient for a final result.
The European Union's AI Act, the world's first law on artificial
intelligence, is one step closer to seeing the light of day, but
extra time will be needed to conclude the historic agreement.
In the new chapter of the eternal challenge between man and
technology, the positions of national governments and the
European Parliament still need to come closer to clearly delimit
the scope of AI with the aim of putting the protection of
fundamental rights centre stage.
In the common European approach, these cannot be sacrificed even
on the altar of an economic race with the United States and
China that for the EU is worth 20 billion euro in investments
per year until 2030.
The last remaining sticking points concern facial recognition -
rejected in its entirety by MEPs and instead admitted for
security reasons by national governments - and the regulation of
ChatGpt, Bard and other AI systems based on foundational models.
The afternoon and night of negotiations in Brussels were
followed by a dawn still full of hope.
Then, after lunch, came the feeling of stalemate and the
awareness that it would be necessary to resume work the
following day in order to clarify ideas, iron out the last
remaining differences and seal the agreement.
In the long negotiations, EU Commissioner Thierry Breton, the
"father" of the legislative proposal dated April 2021, said "a
lot of progress" had been made - enough not to overturn the
negotiating table and to nourish optimism for a happy ending.
This will inevitably come via the path of exceptions to be
granted - or not - on mass surveillance systems.
The 27 EU member states have rejected the complete ban on a Big
Brother called for by MEPs.
The two positions have been irreconcilable since the dawn of the
first Brussels proposal - which did provide for exceptions - and
even in the final hours of talks the sides are struggling to
find a compromise, with Madrid's EU presidency supporting
exceptions for public safety, the fight against terrorism and
the search for missing children or criminals.
There is a similar contrast in relation to generative artificial
intelligence systems, with MEPs calling for ad hoc supervision
and more transparency on the algorithms and on the huge
databases at their core and member states trying to avoid
excessive regulation in the fear that it could nip emerging
champions such as Aleph Alpha in Germany and Mistal AI in France
in the bud, making their development costs prohibitive.
Further negotiations will be needed to reach a final mediation
agreement.
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