EU Presented New Guidelines in AI Law

The European Union unveiled new guidelines under its AI Act. They focus on prohibited uses of the technology.

The regulatory framework, first unveiled in 2023, attracted opposition from the industry. It categorizes AI technologies into minimal, transparent, high, or unacceptable risk levels, moving to ban systems that pose a threat to safety and fundamental rights. The latest measures, released by the European Commission, provide detailed guidance on how the rules will apply.

Under the new guidelines, AI systems that carry out manipulative, exploitative, social control, or surveillance practices are barred from the EU. This includes AI practices such as predictive social scoring, mass biometric surveillance, and scraping internet sources or CCTV footage to build facial recognition databases. The legislation also mandates transparency requirements for companies developing high-risk AI systems, that serve public service functions including healthcare, credit-scoring, and migration.

Developers of more advanced AI models face even stricter obligations including mandatory human oversight of AI systems and risk assessments. National regulators will oversee the enforcement of the act, with non-compliant companies facing financial penalties of up to €35 million or higher concerning their global annual revenue. Companies engaging in prohibited AI practices could also be hit with a ban from operating in the EU. However, the framework exempts select areas from its scope including national security tasks, third-country authorities or international organizations using AI for law enforcement, and pre-market AI research and development.

Several tech giants raised concerns over the stringent regulations, arguing they could crush AI innovation and investment. In response to the latest announcement, the head of global affairs at Meta PLatforms, Joel Kaplan, announced the company will not join the EU’s AI Code of Practice, calling it unworkable and claiming it imposes unnecessary burdens on open-source AI models. Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump has warned the EU against targeting US tech companies, while hinting at possible retaliatory measures targeting businesses in the EU. “We have some very big complaints with the EU,” he said last month.