parliament

“EDPS Alerts: Europe’s Privacy Principles Threatened by Rapid AI Advancements”

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The European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) has warned key planks of the bloc’s data protection and privacy regime are under attack from industry lobbyists and could face a critical reception from lawmakers in the next parliamentary mandate. Any shift of approach by incoming lawmakers could have implications for the bloc’s high standard of protection for people’s data. But he particularly highlighted industry lobbying, especially complaints from businesses targeting the GDPR principle of purpose limitation. Wiewiórowski did not explicitly blame generative AI for driving the “strong attacks” on the GDPR’s purpose limitation principle. So any AI-driven weakening of EU data protection laws in the near term is likely to have long term consequences for citizens’ human rights.

European Parliament gives approval to EU AI Act deal

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The European Parliament voted Wednesday to adopt the AI Act, securing the bloc pole-position in setting rules for a broad sweep of artificial intelligence-powered software — or what regional lawmakers have dubbed “the world’s first comprehensive AI law”. pic.twitter.com/t4ahAwkaSn — Thierry Breton (@ThierryBreton) March 13, 2024Once published in the EU’s Official Journal in the coming months, the AI Act will come into force 20 days after that. And with that alone the AI Act has nudged the future of AI in a human-centric direction. But the legislation also puts some (light touch) transparency obligations on a third subset of apps, including AI chatbots; generative AI tools that can create synthetic media (aka deepfakes); and general purpose AI models (GPAI). Rules for GPAIs were a later addition to the AI Act, driven by concerned MEPs.

“Breaking Barriers: An Inside Look into EU AI Act Advisor and European Parliament Member, Eva Maydell”

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Eva Maydell is a Bulgarian politician and a member of European Parliament. Eva Maydell, member of European ParliamentBriefly, how did you get your start in AI? When I first became a member of the European Parliament, I was one of the few young female members of European Parliament (MEPs) that worked on tech issues. The more women keep sharing their ideas, visions and voice, the more they will inspire other women to step into the world of tech. The greatest challenge for any politician working on tech and AI is trying to regulate and prepare for the future with accuracy.

“Call for Algorithmic Transparency: EU Urges Stricter Regulations for Music-Streaming Services”

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The European Parliament is calling for new rules to bring more fairness and transparency to music-streaming across the bloc, including proposals for a new bill to force streaming platforms to open up their recommendation algorithms. The bill would also require Spotify et al to make it clear where a song has been generated by artificial intelligence (AI). While final details are far from set in stone, this might eventually include setting quotas to showcase a certain amount of work from European artists. However, the company performed a 180-degree turn when the government gave assurances that music-streaming platforms wouldn’t be expected to cover extra costs resulting from the law. In response, Spotify vowed to cut back its investment in the French market, starting with pulling support for two music festivals.