Light touch AI regulations vs EU AI Act: Who Will Win?
In this period EU AI Act is taking the stage. It will be soon enforced (publication in EU Journal expected by May/June 2024) hence companies and organizations alike need to abide by it.
Now, other countries like the UK (or even USA at least at federal level) have a light touch approach: for the sake not to slow down innovation they prefer just release guidelines on AI by sector rather than one encompassing body of law on AI.
The rationale here is that AI or not , data or not, there are already regulations in place to protect citizens’ rights and if it is necessary for a certain sector to ‘add a regulation’, it is up to the authority of that sector to do it. It is called a ‘vertical’ approach, each sector is allowed to regulate, if necessary.
In theory it is indeed a light touch, favoring innovation as the intention is.
But the question is, is it really a light touch for the companies ?
I give an example.
Sector: aviation,
Authority: CIA (Civil Aviation Authority),
Companies: airlines and third parties of various kinds.
Now, if the airline has an automated system to set prices of flights and now it uses AI to determine pricing instead of an algorithm of some sort.
For the client (passenger) makes no difference as there was regulation on pricing systems before AI was introduced: the airline cannot make ‘individual’ pricing : if it raises prices of a flight it has to raise for all viewers not the single user. It has always been like that, no matter if you use AI, third party data or not.
Need for new regulation? Probably not.
But here is where the matter gets complicated.
If the airline uses a third party to run the pricing engine (or a provider for passenger data etc.), now that third party company has to be regulated by the CIA while it was not before.
So if a company was serving algorithms for finance, aviation or other industries, now with AI, potentially it has to be regulated by any authority of each sector.
Is it really a light touch?
On top of that, if authorities will have ‘divergent’ rules you end up with a messy system with different standards on using AI and possibly ambiguity.
While the UK/US intention is right, it does not mean it will be realized. It may backfire.
So what is better? a single AI regulation across industries or ‘light’ touch but potentially different in each industry?
It will all come down to ‘light’ will be light. At the moment there is an ‘ambiguity’ on that word.
It is actually a light touch, yes UK/US (federal) approach will be favored.
If the light touch is not, well EU AI Act it is the way to go.
We shall see.
What do you think? Write below. I am interested to know.
#ai #artificialintelligence #innovation #law #technology
