The world's first Artificial Intelligence Law overcomes the obstacle of the European Parliament

The European Parliament has approved in its plenary session on Wednesday the proposal from which the world's first Artificial Intelligence (AI) Law will emerge, which will now enter the 'tripartite' phase of negotiations between the European Council, the Commission and the very eurochamber. The biggest stumbling block that had arisen in recent days was in remote biometric identification, that is, the possibility of following a face in a crowd in a public space.. Finally, the prohibition has been maintained, as it was in the draft, although the possibility of using these techniques deferred and in very exceptional cases may continue to be discussed..

The MEP Brando Benifei, one of the rapporteurs for the proposal, has been satisfied with the result and very critical of the attempt to alter the agreed document: “There has been an attempt to politicize it, to turn it into a propaganda tool, but we have won in Parliament, to maintain a clear guarantee of avoiding any type of mass surveillance; and, at the same time, maintaining the possibility of identification in non-real time to prosecute criminals who are a risk to society”, has summarized.

Organizations such as Amnesty International have denounced that mass surveillance techniques can lead to “racist” use and leave vulnerable groups unprotected.. Along with biometric identification in public spaces, AI applications for the biometric classification of people using sensitive characteristics such as gender, race, ethnicity, citizen status, religion or political orientation, as well as the recognition of emotions in police activities, border control, the workplace or educational institutions; nor will the indiscriminate tracking of facial images be allowed to create facial recognition databases.

“All of this is perfectly compatible with our desire to be leaders,” said Roberta Metsola, President of the European Parliament.. Along the same lines, Benifei has insisted that “unnecessary tests” will not be carried out on AI systems, “but very serious evaluations will be carried out when necessary to protect fundamental rights”.. The idea is that well-established rights such as privacy, authorship or the veracity of information remain safe as technology becomes increasingly disruptive..

Dragos Tudorache, a member of the European Parliament and also a rapporteur for the text that was voted on today, was confident on Tuesday night that the document would be approved and commented to EL MUNDO the decisive importance that, he considers, the new regulation will have: ” We've all heard it before, many times: “This (whatever 'this' is) will transform society. This will change the world. This will have a transformative impact. Often, well-intentioned political hype. But, with artificial intelligence , they fall short. Humanity is facing a decisive change in history. We might not see it yet. In fact, we almost certainly won't see it yet. The small sample that a powerful chatbot has brought us in recent months is not nothing”.

The MEP refers to the new generative systems, such as ChatGPT, which will be subject to new rules when the proposal becomes Law. For example, it will be mandatory to label the contents that have been generated by an AI system. With this, the European Parliament hopes that it will be easier “to distinguish the images called 'deep fakes' from the real ones”. Something that, at first glance, will be practically impossible.

The AI industry, according to Tudorache, “has the potential to transform what it means to be human.”. It has the potential to change the global economic system and the way people live their lives around the world.. It has the potential to usher in a golden age of human progress never before imagined.. Artificial intelligence will change the face of the planet”. In an opinion shared by other experts and MEPs, Tudorache considers that the Law that will regulate this technology is “one of the most important -if not the most important- of this mandate”.

Once approved, which will not happen before the end of the year, the new standard will serve to “provide transparency” and applications can be subject to audits by public authorities, says Sergio de Juan-Creix, associate professor at Information and Communication Sciences Studies at the UOC. “It is a pioneering standard in the world. which adds another layer of difficulty: Europe is being a pioneer, it doesn't have a reflection in which to look.”.