The AI industry and regulation: time for implementation?
Gabi Lombardo · Policy Press eBooks · 2022
Artificial intelligence (AI) has enabled new innovations, as well as having applications in many traditional products, such as cars and aircraft, which are already subject to regulation designed to protect the public from harm and ensure fairness in economic competition. In general, the approach to the regulation of AI-enabled products to ensure public safety should be informed by an assessment of the aspects of risk that the addition of AI may introduce, including those aspects of risk that it may increase or reduce. Additional requirements for AI regulations add further layers of complexity to innovation by industry. This chapter will address questions such as how the incorporation of AI into these products will affect the relevant regulatory approaches. If a risk falls within the bounds of an existing regulatory regime, moreover, the policy discussion should start by considering whether the existing regulations already adequately address the risk, or whether they need to be adapted to the addition of AI. Where regulatory responses to the addition of AI threaten to increase the cost of compliance, or slow the development or adoption of beneficial innovations, policymakers should consider how those responses could be adjusted to lower the barriers to innovation without adversely impacting safety or market fairness. In April 2021, the European Commission introduced a proposal for legislation to govern the use of AI, acting on its aim to draw up rules for the technology sector over the next five years and on its legacy as the world’s leading regulator of digital privacy. At the heart of the issue is the will to balance the need for rules with the desire to boost innovation, allowing the old continent to assert its digital sovereignty. At the same time, with Brexit the UK is now in a more autonomous position and looking at diverging from the European Union (EU) on this issue as with many other regulatory frameworks (despite the current legislation having been inspired by the UK in the past). On where the needle should be, opinions are divided – and the publication of the Commission’s draft proposal will not be the end of the discussion. But how will such rules fit in with broader plans to build European tech platforms that will compete globally with other regions? How will new requirements on algorithmic transparency come across to the general public? And what kind of implementation effort will this require from start-ups, mid-size companies and big tech?