According to a joint paper obtained by Reuters, November 18, France, Germany, and Italy have achieved an agreement on how artificial intelligence should be governed, which is expected to speed up negotiations at the European level.
The European Parliament proposed the AI Act in June with the goal of mitigating the hazards of artificial intelligence (AI) applications and avoiding discriminatory impacts while harnessing AI’s innovative power. On Friday, MEPs walked out of a meeting with member state representatives after reaching a deadlock over the proposed approach to foundation models.
France, Germany, and Italy were among the larger member states pushing against regulation, a move which threatened to derail efforts to get the legislation passed in this session of the European Parliament altogether.
The three countries support “mandatory self-regulation through codes of conduct” for AI foundation models, which are intended to deliver a wide range of outputs. They are, however, opposed to “untested norms.”
“Together we underline that the AI Act regulates the application of AI and not the technology as such,” the two authors said in the paper. “The inherent risks lie in the application of AI systems rather than in the technology itself.” European Commission, European Parliament, and EU Council are now negotiating the bloc’s position on this issue.
According to the paper, foundation model developers would need to define model cards, which are employed to offer details regarding the machine learning model. However, if infractions of the code of conduct are discovered after a specific amount of time, a penalty system should be established.
According to Germany’s Economy Ministry, which oversees the matter with its Ministry of Digital Affairs, regulations and governmental authority shouldn’t govern AI itself but rather its implementation. Minister for Digital Affairs Volker Wissing told Reuters that “he was delighted that an agreement had been struck with France and Germany to restrict just the use of AI.”
“We need to regulate the applications and not the technology if we want to play in the top AI league worldwide,” Wissing said in a statement. Franziska Brantner, State Secretary for Economic Affairs, told Reuters “that it was critical to capitalize on possibilities while minimizing risks.”
“We have developed a proposal that can ensure a balance between both objectives in a technological and legal terrain that has not yet been defined,” Brantner said in a statement.
As governments across the world attempt to capitalize on the economic advantages of AI, Britain sponsored the very first AI safety forum in November. On Monday and Tuesday, the German government will organize a digital summit in Jena, Thuringia, bringing together officials from politics, business, and science. AI issues will also be discussed when the German and Italian governments meet in Berlin on Wednesday.
