EC Proposes Regulatory Framework for Artificial Intelligence

Proposed regulation on artificial intelligence. The proposal presents a balanced and proportionate horizontal regulatory approach to artificial intelligence that is limited to the minimum necessary requirements to address the risks and issues linked to artificial intelligence, without unduly constraining or hindering technological development or otherwise disproportionately increasing the cost of placing artificial intelligence solutions on the market. The proposed rule will be enforced through a governance system at member state level, building on already existing structures and a cooperation mechanism at EU level with the establishment of a European Artificial Intelligence Board. Additional measures are also proposed to support innovation, particularly through artificial intelligence regulatory sandboxes and other measures to reduce the regulatory burden and to support small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) and startups. Specifically, the proposed regulation lays out:

• Harmonized rules for the placing on the market, the putting into service, and the use of artificial intelligence systems EU
• Prohibitions of certain artificial intelligence practices
• Specific requirements for high-risk artificial intelligence systems and obligations for operators of such systems
• Harmonized transparency rules for artificial intelligence systems intended to interact with natural persons, emotion recognition systems, biometric categorization systems, and artificial intelligence systems used to generate or manipulate image, audio, or video content
• Rules on market monitoring and surveillance

Coordinated plan on artificial intelligence. This comprehensive update of the Coordinated Plan, which was first published in 2018, proposes concrete joint actions for collaboration to ensure all efforts are aligned with the European Strategy on artificial intelligence and the European Green Deal, while considering the challenges brought by the COVID-19 pandemic. It aims to spur the implementation of national artificial intelligence strategies, remove fragmentation, and address global challenges. As part of the key proposed actions in this plan, EC is expected to propose a legislative action on horizontal framework on trustworthy artificial intelligence by the second quarter of 2021. EC is also expected to bring artificial intelligence into play for climate and environment by developing a roadmap for a common European Green Deal data space to exploit the major potential of data for sustainability and climate adaptation, creating a data space for climate-neutral and smart communities and validate through pilots focusing on European Green Deal action areas, and by starting to explore key performance indicators to identify and measure negative environmental impact of artificial intelligence. Appendix 1 to the plan sets out timeline for the key proposed actions. 

Related Links

• Press Release
• Proposed Regulation on Artificial Intelligence
• Coordinated Plan on Artificial Intelligence
• Q&A on Proposal and Plan

Keywords: Europe, EU, Banking, Insurance, Securities, Artificial Intelligence, Proportionality, Q&A, European Green Deal, Regulatory Sandbox, Climate Change Risk, Sustainable Finance, EC