EU- Parliament calls for stricter rules for artificial intelligence

EU- Parliament calls for stricter rules for artificial intelligence

Brussels, 12.5.2023

No facial recognition in public spaces and more transparency – the committees of the EU Parliament insist on tightening the Commission’s law on the regulation of artificial intelligence.

The European Parliament wants significantly stricter rules for artificial intelligence. In Strasbourg, the lead committees worked out requests for changes to the EU Commission’s draft law.

Among other things, they are calling for a ban on real-time facial recognition systems in public spaces. „We know facial recognition for surveillance from China, this application of technology has no place in a liberal democracy.“ The deputies also reject systems for detecting emotions or categorizing people according to gender, ethnicity or religion.

The committees also identify other „high-risk areas“ for artificial intelligence than the EU Commission. In addition to health, safety, fundamental rights and the environment, systems for influencing voters and recommendation systems on large social media platforms should also be included.

In the case of ChatGPT programs, the committees call for additional obligations to protect fundamental rights and more transparency. Such programs should be designed in such a way that no illegal content can be generated or copyrighted data can be published. Citizens should be strengthened in their rights to complain and to be informed.

Even the Union parties are critical of the law. The CDU MP Axel Voss has found that many users are more fear-driven than highly motivated with artificial intelligence.

The enormous resource consumption of AI systems like ChatGPT is not acceptable for the Green MEP Sergey Lagodinsky. Therefore, in the future, attention should be paid to energy-efficient design during development.

The EU Commission proposed this law about two years ago with the aim of setting global standards for artificial intelligence. The entire Parliament still has to vote on the committees‘ amendments. This is planned for the meeting from June 12th to 15th. The negotiations with representatives of the EU member states on the final form of the law can then begin.