Current state of EU legislation on AI
Group of authors / Deloitte
11/09/2023
Legislative processes within the European Union may seem complex not only in terms of their form but also in terms of their timeframe. This is also true for the Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act). To provide a clear explanation of the path of this legislation towards final approval, one needs to start with the first initiatives, follow the cycle of the legislative text from the first proposals, and place everything in a broader context.
The first European AI initiative was established in 2018 with the creation of the High-Level Expert Group on Artificial Intelligence (AI HLEG) and the European AI Alliance. These two groups were created to shape European values for trustworthy AI and engage in a conversation about rules for safe AI use across Europe with academics, business representatives, citizens, and non-governmental organizations. A year later, Ethics guidelines for trustworthy AI were issued in accordance with the perspectives of all involved parties. As a result of these EU initiatives, the so-called White Paper on Artificial Intelligence: a European approach to excellence and trust and the Assessment List for Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence (ALTAI) were published, providing the foundation for the legislative text along with an online public consultation in 2020.
Authors: Vilém Krejcar, Pavel Šálek, Filip Konečný