The European Parliament is among the first institutions to
put forward recommendations on what AI rules should include
with regards to ethics, liability and intellectual property
rights. These recommendations will pave the way for the EU
to become a global leader in the development of AI. The
Commission legislative proposal is expected early next
year.
Ethics framework for AI
The legislative initiative
by Iban
García del Blanco (S&D, ES) urges the EU Commission
to present a new legal framework outlining the ethical
principles and legal obligations to be followed when
developing, deploying and using artificial intelligence,
robotics and related technologies in the EU including
software, algorithms and data.
It was adopted with 559 votes in favour, 44 against, and 88
abstentions.
Future laws should be made in accordance with several
guiding principles, including: a human-centric and
human-made AI; safety, transparency and accountability;
safeguards against bias and discrimination; right to
redress; social and environmental responsibility; and
respect for privacy and data protection.
High-risk AI technologies, such as those with self-learning
capacities, should be designed to allow for human oversight
at any time. If a functionality is used that would result
in a serious breach of ethical principles and could be
dangerous, the self-learning capacities should be disabled
and full human control should be restored.
Liability for AI causing damage
The legislative initiative by Axel
Voss (EPP, DE) calls for a future-oriented civil
liability framework, making those operating high-risk AI
strictly liable for any resulting damage. A clear legal
framework would stimulate innovation by providing
businesses with legal certainty, whilst protecting citizens
and promoting their trust in AI technologies by deterring
activities that might be dangerous.
The rules should apply to physical or virtual AI activity
that harms or damages life, health, physical integrity,
property, or that causes significant immaterial harm if it
results in “verifiable economic loss”. While high-risk AI
technologies are still rare, MEPs believe that their
operators should hold insurance similar to that used for
motor vehicles.
The legislative initiative was adopted with 626 votes in
favour, 25 against, and 40 abstentions.
Intellectual property rights
The report by Stéphane Séjourné
(Renew Europe, FR) makes clear that EU global leadership in
AI requires an effective intellectual property rights
system (IPR) and safeguards for the EU’s patent system to
protect innovative developers, while stressing that this
should not come at the expense of human creators’
interests, nor the European Union’s ethical principles.
MEPs believe it is important to distinguish between
AI-assisted human creations and AI-generated creations.
They specify that AI should not have legal personality;
thus, ownership of IPRs should only be granted to humans.
The text looks further into copyright, data collection,
trade secrets, the use of algorithms and deep fakes.
The report was adopted with 612 votes in favour, 66
against, and 12 abstentions.
Further information
