The potential of artificial intelligence (AI) is growing by the day, with industries across the globe implementing savvy systems to help drive everyday operations. Consequently, governments have taken an extreme interest in the possibilities of AI and its impact on people’s daily lives. The European Union is an excellent example of this as they have introduced a new Artificial Intelligence Act that will set the foundation for how European countries look at and regulate AI.
To understand the implications of this act, it is important to look at how the EU defines the risk levels of AI systems. The EU is taking a risk-level approach, in which AI is classified as having low to moderate, high, and unacceptable risk levels. Regulation surrounding these levels ranges from rules involving transparency for those with a low risk to forbidding the application of systems with an unacceptable risk level. This framework will serve as the benchmark where all technologies considered to be artificially intelligent will be held and will enable the EU to keep a watchful eye on systems potentially harmful to people.
The U.S. government has taken steps toward regulating AI, implementing the American Artificial Intelligence Initiative. This initiative will set guidelines for advancements of new AI technologies moving into the future and will be a framework for future regulation. The U.S. has started to align with the EU in these matters, and continued cooperation moving into the future will result in more regulation of potentially dangerous artificial intelligence systems.