After several months of deliberations, European Union lawmakers have reached a preliminary agreement and have passed a draft of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Act, which would be the first set of comprehensive laws related to AI regulation.

The draft which was approved on Thursday will see it proceed to the trilogue stage, a place where lawmakers would reach a provisional agreement on the draft and will work on finalizing the details.

The proposed regulations will categorize AI tools based on their assessed level of risk, ranging from minimal to limited, high, and unacceptable. However, the use of AI tools will not be prohibited, as they will only be required to ensure transparency in their operation. Also, under the proposal, companies that make generative AI tools would have to disclose if they have used copyright in their systems.

Ahead of the European Parliament’s vote on the AI Act in May, the advocacy advisor on Artificial Intelligence Regulation at Amnesty International Mher Hakobyan via an open letter to members of the Parliament, disclosed that the EU has a significant opportunity to regulate AI technologies to protect and promote human rights.

The letter reads in part,

“The AI Act offers an opportunity to put an end to the use of discriminatory and rights-violating artificial intelligence (AI) systems. The EU must ban the use of discriminatory AI systems which disproportionately affect people from marginalized communities, including Refugees, migrants, and asylum seekers. Such technologies profile people and communities, claiming to predict crimes or identify people who supposedly pose a security risk, even leading to them being denied the right to asylum.

“EU lawmakers must not miss the opportunity to prohibit the use of certain AI-based practices and protect the rights of migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers against harmful aspects of AI. The use of mass surveillance technologies, such as retrospective and live remote biometric identification tools must also be banned. The proposed law must also ban discriminatory social scoring systems that prevent people from accessing essential public and private services, such as child support benefits and education.

“The AI act should address the development of European technologies that are exported to third countries. Firstly, AI systems that are prohibited in Europe should not be allowed to be exported abroad. Secondly, permitted high-risk technologies that are exported must meet the same regulatory requirements as high-risk technologies sold in the EU. Strong accountability and transparency measures must also be enforced when public and private bodies use AI systems in the EU. These actors must disclose their use of high-risk AI systems, and publish the human rights impact assessments. This is important so that people harmed by AI systems can seek redress. The AI Act should establish a mechanism for this purpose”.

Reports reveal that the European Union began drafting the AI Act nearly two years ago to regulate emerging artificial intelligence technology, which underwent a boom in investment and popularity following the release of OpenAI’s AI-powered chatbot ChatGPT last year.

It is worth noting that the race among tech companies both big and small to integrate AI into their products has concerned so many, which has seen Twitter CEO Elon Musk and several tech leaders write a proposal to call for the halt of the development of such systems.

Recall that these leaders urged major AI labs to immediately pause the training of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4 for at least six months. In an open letter penned by the Future of Life Institute, they cautioned that AI systems with “human-competitive intelligence” could become a major threat to humanity. Among the risks, is the possibility of AI outsmarting humans, rendering us obsolete, and taking control of civilization.

The letter emphasizes the need to develop a comprehensive set of protocols to govern the development and deployment of AI.

In the U.S., it has adopted a hands-off strategy. The US Chamber of Commerce have called for AI regulation, to ensure it doesn’t hurt growth or become a national security risk, but no action has been taken yet. It is interesting to note that the battle for regulation has seen governments and large technology companies go at loggerheads.

There are several arguments both for and against allowing caution to drive the control of AI. On one hand, AI is praised for being able to generate all forms of content, handle mundane tasks and detect cancers, among other things. On the other hand, there are concerns over its ability to deceive, perpetuate bias, and plagiarism, as some experts are worried about the future of humans.

Some scholars have however argued that excessive regulation may hinder AI’s full potential and interfere with “creative destruction.