Artificial Intelligence: proposal for a European Regulation.
TMT (Telecoms, Media, Technology) Department | Artificial Intelligence: proposal for a European Regulation.
On 21 April 2021, the European Commission released its proposal for a Regulation containing aligned rules to regulate the development, marketing, and use of artificial intelligence in the European Union (the “Regulation”).
The Regulation applies to “artificial intelligence systems” defined as “software that is developed using one or more of the techniques and approaches listed in Annex I and that, for a given set of human-defined objectives, can generate outputs such as content, predictions, recommendations or decisions that influence the environments with which they interact”.
The Regulation will have extraterritorial reach, considering that it will apply to public and private actors, inside and outside the EU, whenever the AI system is placed on the EU market or its use affect persons established in the EU. It does not apply to private non-professional uses.
The Regulation establishes four levels of risk: Inadmissible Risk, High Risk, Limited Risk, and Minimal Risk. AI that is considered to be of Unacceptable Risk will be banned in the EU. Depending on the degree of risk, different obligations are imposed.
The obligations provided for by the Regulation apply to suppliers, users, importers, and distributors who use, place on the market, or put into service an AI system carrying the name or trademark of a natural or legal person established outside the Union.
The Regulation provides for severe penalties for non-compliance, including administrative fines of up to EUR 30 million or, if the offender is a company, 6% of its total annual worldwide gross turnover (whichever is higher), with lesser fines also foreseen for minor infringements.
Click here to read the full text of the Regulation.