Post de Thomas Wentz

Even above our optimistic expectations! The AI Act is finally approved! #aiact

European Parliamentary Research Service: #GenAI and #Watermarking Generative artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to transform industries and society by boosting innovation, empowering individuals and increasing productivity. One of the drawbacks of the adoption of this technology, however, is that it is becoming increasingly difficult to differentiate human-generated content from synthetic content generated by AI, potentially enabling illegal and harmful conduct. Policymakers around the globe are therefore pondering how to design and implement watermarking techniques to ensure a trustworthy AI environment. China has already taken steps to ban AI-generated images without watermarks. The US administration has been tasked with developing effective labelling and content provenance mechanisms so that end users are able to determine when content is generated using AI and when it is not. The G7 has asked companies to develop and deploy reliable content authentication and provenance mechanisms, such as watermarking, to enable users to identify AI-generated content. The EU's new AI act, provisionally agreed in December 2023, places a number of obligations on providers and users of AI systems to enable the detection and tracing of AI-generated content. Implementation of these obligations will likely require use of watermarking techniques. Current state-of-the-art AI watermarking techniques display strong technical limitations and drawbacks, however, in terms of technical implementation, accuracy and robustness. Generative AI developers and policymakers now face a number of issues, including how to ensure the development of robust watermarking tools and how to foster watermarking standardisation and implementation rules.

Today is D-day for the #AI Act. There is a lot of pressure to reach an agreement, and the stakes are very high. I have little doubt some sort of deal will be found, but there are several pitfalls to watch out for and constraints on all sides. An overview of what you need to know. The list of open issues is still mind-boggling, with as many as 23 points. Even if an agreement is reached on all of them, it won't be the end of the story. Intense technical work will follow. Not only to fine-tune the text but also to settle political questions. In other words, the negotiations will be far from over despite what you will read in celebratory tweets. The Spanish presidency is determined to score a victory and close the deal. For State Secretary Carme Artigas, it's "now or never". She might be right since the Belgian presidency would hardly have the time to tie up all the loose ends. Those who call for more trilogues intentionally want to derail the process. The presidency will have to walk a fine line, especially on foundation models. Expect a lot of breakouts during the trilogue to check in with France and Germany. France has been the most rigid country on foundation models. However, at the last COREPER, they said they would not stand in the way of a deal. In fact, they might not have the numbers to do so. And Paris also has much at stake on the national security/law enforcement side. Germany is, as usual, a question mark. There are divisions between ministries, coalition members and even inside the same parties. My personal view is that, in the worst-case scenario, Berlin might abstain. Italy is the most flexible of the sceptical trio. Alessio Butti won the internal battle to control the file against Adolfo Urso, who was more of a hardliner. Rome has no direct stake in foundation models, so its support could be bought with concessions on other files. The European Commission is also determined to reach a deal. To the point that Commissioner Thierry Breton went rather unprecedently against the position of its own country. The perspective of being the world's regulator of foundation models is, of course, very appealing. In the European Parliament, the co-rapporteurs will have a difficult job managing all political groups. Yesterday's shadow meeting didn't even finish going through all points. As it was impossible to reach fall-back positions on everything, expect a lot of on-the-spot negotiations. While MEPs agree on foundation models, chapters like law enforcement are more divisive. Even the open-source exemption might be a red line for some. Most political groups have given up much, and their representatives might have difficulty selling the compromise internally. However, as often happens with such key legislation, nobody wants to be pointed out as the showstopper. Especially with the European elections coming up, MEPs, Commissioners and governments have strong incentives to show off the AI law to their respective constituencies.