AI Regulation. EU Commission readies establishment of AI Office

The European Commission is set to adopt a decision establishing the European Artificial Intelligence Office, according to a draft document obtained by Euractiv. The AI Office will oversee the use of General-Purpose AI (GPAI) models and systems.

Key facts

• The AI Office will play a pivotal role in the enforcement architecture of the AI Act, the EU’s landmark law to regulate Artificial Intelligence, set to be formally adopted in the coming weeks based on a political agreement concluded in December last year.
• The idea of an AI Office to centralise the enforcement of the AI rulebook came from the European Parliament.
• The AI Office will have primarily a supporting role for what concerns the enforcement of the rules on AI systems, as the bulk of the competencies will be on national authorities. However, the Office has been assigned to policing General-Purpose AI (GPAI) models and systems, the most potent types of AI so far.

Context

On December 9, the European Parliament, representatives of EU countries, and experts from the European Commission nailed down a political agreement on the Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act). This is the EU’s first attempt to regulate the field of AI. After a 36-hour negotiating marathon, representatives of the three EU institutions reached an agreement on such controversial issues as predictive policing, facial recognition, and the use of AI by law enforcement agencies.

The EU act is based on a set of rules that apply only to systems that are considered “high-risk” and are used predominantly in such sensitive areas as critical infrastructure, education, human resources, law enforcement, etc. These systems will be subject to a number of obligations, including the implementation of a risk management system.

The act provides for special supervision of AI systems that interact with humans. They will be required to inform the user that they are interacting with a machine.The agreement also provides that European legislation will be equipped with monitoring and sanctions measures, and a European AI Office will be created in the European Commission.

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