The new bill, called the AI Liability Directive, would add to The AI Act, which is set to become EU law around the same time. The AI Act would require further examination of the “high-risk” uses of AI that are most likely to harm humans, including policy-making, recruitment or healthcare systems.
The new liability bill would give people and companies the right to sue for damages after being harmed by an AI system. The goal is to hold developers, manufacturers, and users of the technology accountable and ask them to explain how their AI systems were built and trained. Tech companies that don’t follow the rules run the risk of class-action lawsuits across the EU.
For example, job seekers who can prove that an AI system for background screening discriminates against them can ask a court to force the AI company to grant them access to information about the system so that they be able to identify who is responsible and figure out what happened. Armed with this information, they can sue.
The proposal still needs to pass the EU’s legislative process, which will take at least several years. It will be revised by members of the European Parliament and EU governments and will likely face fierce lobbying from tech companies, request that such rules can have a “chilling” effect on innovation.
Whether it succeeds or not, this new EU law will have a huge impact on how AI is regulated around the world.
In particular, this bill could have a negative impact on software development, said Mathilde Adjutor, Europe policy director for the CCIA technology lobby group, which represents companies including Google, Amazon and Uber.
Under the new rules, “developers are at risk not only for software defects but also for the software’s potential impact on users’ mental health,” she said.
Imogen Parker, deputy director of policy at the Ada Lovelace Institute, an AI research institute, said the bill would shift power away from companies and back to consumers – an adjustment she sees as distinctive. important distinction from the discriminatory potential of AI. And the bill would ensure that when an AI system causes harm, there is a common way to seek redress across the EU, said Thomas Boué, European policy head for BSA technology lobbying. members include Microsoft and IBM, said.
However, some consumer groups and activists say the proposals don’t go far enough and would set the bar too high for consumers who want to make a claim.
