EU tech chief sees draft voluntary AI code within weeks

1:22 pm Wednesday, May 31st, 2023

By Philip Blenkinsop

LULEA, Sweden (Reuters) – EU tech chief Margrethe Vestager said on Wednesday she believed a draft code of conduct on artificial intelligence (AI) could be drawn up within weeks, allowing industry to commit to a final proposal “very, very soon”.

Policymakers and many in the industry have expressed concern about AI, particularly content-creating generative AI such as ChatGPT, with some equating it to the risks posed by pandemics or nuclear war.

Vestager said the United States and European Union should push a voluntary code to provide safeguards while new laws are developed.

“Generative AI is a complete game-changer,” Vestager, who is a vice president of the European Commission, told a news conference on Wednesday after a meeting of the EU-U.S. Trade and Technology Council (TTC).

“Everyone knows this is the next powerful thing. So within the next weeks we will advance a draft of an AI code of conduct,” she said, adding she hoped there would be a final proposal “very, very soon” that industry could sign up to.

In a subsequent tweet, she mentioned watermarking and external audits among ideas that could feature in the code.

The European Union’s AI Act, with rules on facial recognition and biometric surveillance, is still going through the legislative process.

“In the best of cases it will take effect in two and a half to three years time. That is obviously way too late,” Vestager told reporters before the meeting of the TTC in Sweden. “We need to act now.”

The TTC closing statement said the two partners had created expert groups focusing on terms required to assess AI risks, cooperation on AI standards and monitoring existing and emerging risks.

Leaders of the G7 nations called this month for the development of technical standards to keep AI “trustworthy”, urging international discussions on topics such as governance, copyright, transparency and the threat of disinformation.

Vestager said there needed to be agreement on specifics, suggesting Brussels and Washington could help drive the process, noting that generative was “developing at amazing speeds.”

(Reporting by Philip Blenkinsop; Editing by Mark Potter, Jan Harvey and John Stonestreet)