The European Union’s AI Act is now law, creating a regulatory paper trail that others will have little choice but to follow. So, what does it say?
On the face of it, an apparently sincere move to protect citizens from the worst excesses and dangers of a technology that may have unpredictable social effects.
Indeed, its provisions make it hard for vendors to claim that the EU is seeking to rein in US companies and innovation in general. What the Act does do is impose a duty of care and transparency on the vendors of high-risk systems – and more than a few on the developers of lower-risk and general-purpose AIs too.