Brussels, In a historic move, the European Union (EU) has reportedly reached a preliminary deal to regulate advanced AI models, marking a crucial step towards the world’s first comprehensive artificial intelligence regulation. The agreement, if approved, will significantly impact models like ChatGPT, setting forth limitations on their operations.
The EU document, as disclosed by Bloomberg, outlines that developers of general-purpose AI systems must comply with basic transparency requirements, unless their models are provided as free and open-source. These transparency measures encompass the formulation of an acceptable-use policy, maintaining up-to-date information on model training methodologies, reporting detailed summaries of data used for training, and establishing policies to respect copyright law.
Models identified as posing a “systemic risk” would be subjected to additional regulations, with the level of risk determined by factors such as the computing power used for training the model. The defined threshold is for models utilizing more than 10 trillion trillion (septillion) operations per second, a criterion that currently includes OpenAI’s GPT-4.
Notably, highly capable models are required to commit to a code of conduct while the European Commission formulates more standardized and enduring controls. For those unwilling to sign the code, there is an obligation to demonstrate compliance with the AI Act to the commission. It’s important to note that the exemption for open-source models does not extend to those deemed to pose a systemic risk.
Additional obligations outlined in the tentative deal include reporting energy consumption, undergoing red-teaming or adversarial tests, internally or externally, assessing and mitigating potential systemic risks, reporting any incidents, ensuring the implementation of adequate cybersecurity controls, and conforming to more energy-efficient standards if developed.
While this groundbreaking agreement is poised to set new global standards for AI regulation, its final approval still hinges on the consent of the European Parliament and the EU’s 27 member states. Notably, concerns have been raised by countries like France and Germany, expressing apprehension about potentially stifling European competitors through excessive regulatory measures.