European Union flag is flown by a protester next to London’s Houses of Parliament on September 22, 2017. New artificial intelligence rules in the EU went into effect on Monday. File Photo by Will Oliver/EPA-EFE
Feb. 3 (UPI) — The European Union put into effect its first-of-its-kind artificial intelligence restrictions, placing prohibitions on how the technology can be used and where or face hefty fines.
The EU AI Act, which took effect on Sunday, bans certain applications where AI is considered an “unacceptable risk.”
Some of those areas include using AI for real-time facial recognition and other biometric identification that categories people by race, sexual orientation and other attributes, and social scoring systems.
The fines are steep, up to $35.8 million or 7% of their global annual revenue for violating the act.
Law enforcement and migration officials, however, were able to win a list of exemptions for specific uses in their fields, leaving many anti-AI activists complaining that the law has too many loopholes to be effective. EU officials said they admit the law will have to undergo numerous tweaks as they expect initial hiccups.
“The bans are very much concentrated on one area of concern, which is linked to the protection of our democracies,” Italian politician Brando Benifei said, according to Politico.
Nathalie Smuha, assistant professor and researcher in AIethics at KU Leuven University, said with AI still evolving and expanding, the law simply is not strong enough to make a meaningful difference in its current form.
“You can even question whether you can really speak of a prohibition if there [are] so many exceptions,” Smuha said.
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