The enactment of the AI ACT

On 13 March 2024, the European Parliament passed the Artificial Intelligence Act
(the so-called AI Act), which has long been a significant focus of attention for many
technology companies. A large majority of MEPs voted in favour of the AI Act – 523
voted in favour, 46 voted against with only 49 abstentions.

The idea behind the AI Act is to ensure the development and promotion of safe
artificial intelligence while minimising the risk of abuse in the development and use of
AI technology. The final vote in favour of the AI Act confirms the EU’s belief that it is possible to create regulations for artificial intelligence while not reducing investment in this area.

For this purpose, the adopted text of the AI Act defines AI systems (Article 3(1) AI Act) and classifies AI systems according to the potential risks they pose to society (Article 6 AI Act). In addition, it introduces prohibited practices for the use of AI (Article 5 AI Act).

Among the prohibited practices were such actions as:

• deliberate manipulative or deceptive techniques that have the purpose or
  effect of materially distorting a person’s behaviour;
• the use of AI to carry out a risk assessment of the likelihood of an individual committing a crime;
• the real-time remote biometric identification in public spaces for law enforcement purposes;
• the use of AI to make inferences about an individual’s emotions in the workplace or educational institutions;
• the scoring of social behaviour (i.e., that assessment or classification of an individual’s trustworthiness that may aim to harm or disadvantage certain individuals in an unjustified manner).

We wrote more about what the AI Act introduces in the article: https://zglegal.pl/proposal-for-a-regulation-on-artificial-intelligence-ai-act-2/

Entry into force

The text adopted by the European Parliament must first be formally approved by the
Council. The Artificial Intelligence Act will enter into force twenty days after its publication in the Official Journal. It is assumed that the Artificial Intelligence legislation could enter into force as early as the second half of May this year.

However, the date of entry into force and the date of comprehensive application of
the Regulation are not the same. The AI Act will not be fully applicable until 24 months after the date of entry into force. In this regard, Article 113 of the AI Act also
provides for exceptions regarding, inter alia, obligations on high-risk systems, which
will only come into force after 36 months.