Simonsen Vogt Wiig AS
  December 12, 2023 - Oslo, Norway

Political agreement on the EU’s framework for artificial intelligence
  by Hedda Baumann Heier, Sarah Renså-Skogesal

There was considerable anticipation regarding whether the negotiations would be successfully concluded during this meeting. Without an agreement, there was a risk of significant delays in the adoption of the framework. This was undesirable for EU institutions that have invested considerable prestige in leading the regulation of AI globally. Read more about the most contentious issues leading up to the last negotiation meeting in this article.

After a marathon negotiation session, political agreement on the AI Act was finally reached on Friday, December 8th. There is little doubt that this is considered a significant political victory for all involved, and EU Commissioner for the Internal Market Thierry Breton goes so far as to call the agreement historic.

In broad terms, the political agreement follows the main points of the Commission’s initial draft of the AI Act from 2021. The purpose remains to create a framework that ensures AI in Europe is safe and respects fundamental human rights and democracy, while also facilitating innovation and investment. The framework will be a regulation with a risk-based approach, categorizing all AI systems into four risk groups: systems with unacceptable risk, systems with high risk, systems with limited risk, and systems with minimal or no risk. Systems with unacceptable risk are prohibited, while systems involving high risk are allowed under strict regulation. For the other categories, the regulation is limited.

Below is a brief summary of the main features of the material content of the political agreement and the changes from the earlier drafts of the AI Act:

The next step is for the regulation text to be formally adopted by the European Parliament and the Council and published in the Official Journal. After that, the framework will become effective in the EU after two years, although some parts of the regulation will take effect earlier, including the prohibitions after six months and the GPAI rules after twelve months.

For further reading, refer to the press releases from the EU Commission, the European Parliament, the Council, and the joint press conference held on December 9th.




Read full article at: https://svw.no/en/insights/political-agreement-on-the-eus-framework-for-artificial-intelligence