The EU's First Mover Advantage As It Proposes A New Regulatory "System" For Artificial Intelligence

The European Union reached, on Wednesday, April 21, 2021, a new milestone in the seemingly interminable discussions on a legal and ethical framework for artificial intelligence, when it issued a proposal for a regulation, "Laying down Harmonized Rules on Artificial Intelligence".

The regulation, proposed by the EU's administrative body, the European Commission, under the short name "Artificial Intelligence Act", and subject to adoption by the EU's two legislative bodies, the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union, includes 85 articles spread over some 88 pages and nine annexes. It represents the first attempt by a political body anywhere in the world (to our knowledge, and that of the Commission) to regulate specifically and exclusively "artificial intelligence systems" (a defined term under the proposed regulation).