EU AI Act: What it means and why it important

CGTN Europe

Professor Virginia Dignum, member of the European Union's High Level Expert Group on AI and Professor of Social and Ethical Artificial Intelligence at University of Umeå in Sweden spoke with CGTN Europe on the world’s first comprehensive AI law.

Transcript

00:00 Well, let's get more on this now with Virginia Dignam, a member of the European Union's high-level

00:04 expert group on AI and a professor of social and ethical artificial intelligence at Sweden's

00:11 University of Umeå.

00:12 Thank you very much indeed for being with us.

00:14 So we heard the EU Commissioner Thierry Breton describing the plans as historic, saying that

00:20 it sets clear rules for the use of AI.

00:23 Overall, how do you think, how significant do you think it is, this provisional deal

00:27 that's been called the AI Act, and how necessary is it?

00:32 It is very necessary, and it is very important.

00:36 I agree with the Commissioner that it's a historical moment.

00:40 It's the very first in the world set of rules established specifically for AI, and it's

00:48 based on the protection of fundamental rights and European values.

00:52 It is an example, and it is, I think, something which will be a flagship or a pointer for

01:00 all other developments in the world.

01:03 I actually, I'm a member of the United Nations Advisory Board on AI, and we were having a

01:09 meeting the last two days in New York.

01:11 I just arrived from New York, and all of us there from all over the world, we are looking

01:15 at the developments in Europe as something which is going to be really influential for

01:20 the rest of our other countries and other regions are going to deal with the AI regulation.

01:26 Okay, so the world is looking at what the Europeans are doing about this and calling

01:30 it a flagship.

01:32 And so, looking at the details of this, what key elements stand out to you, and do they

01:38 go some way to regulating the AI used within systems like CHAT, GPT, and facial recognition?

01:45 The first we need to understand is that it is a provisional agreement.

01:49 We need still to wait some time to read the final text, so there will be some work still

01:55 in the coming weeks towards the final text.

01:58 So I cannot really speak with certitude what will come there, but from what we have seen,

02:03 there are definitely some big steps forward towards strong prohibitions, and there is

02:10 a list of banned applications, including, for instance, remote biometric identification,

02:17 and also other types of manipulative techniques.

02:20 So those, I think, are very strong bans and no-goes, red lines for how AI should be used

02:29 within Europe.

02:31 And at the same time, with respect to general purpose models or general purpose AI, as the

02:39 Act talks about them, there are some clear indications that those systems need to comply

02:48 with at least some transparency requirements, and if they are of systemical level, then

02:56 there needs to be some extra steps and extra requirements to those that develop and those

03:03 that use the systems.

03:05 And could this rulebook help, or might it hinder researchers and start-ups in the AI

03:11 industry?

03:13 Research is explicitly set out of the regulations, so while things are in research level, there

03:20 is not many requirements.

03:24 Once things start being used in practice, then of course we need to take into account

03:30 the regulations, again, following this risk-based approach and the different levels of risk.

03:37 But that's not different than in other areas in which research, when we move from research

03:44 to application, there are extra rules.

03:47 I don't think that it's a hinder for start-ups.

03:50 I think that it gives start-ups a direction in which to go.

03:54 It gives also a kind of a level playing field in which everybody knows what are the rules

04:00 of the game.

04:01 A game without rules is a game where no one can win, no one can play.

04:05 So I think it's important for also, especially for start-ups, to have this type of opportunities

04:12 to also innovate within a specific set of rules, and also innovate in the new standards

04:19 and the new requirements that are coming with this law.

04:25 Virginia Dignam from the University of Umeå in Sweden, thank you very much indeed for

04:29 joining us.

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