Negotiations within the European Union regarding groundbreaking regulations for artificial intelligence were temporarily halted on Thursday after 22 consecutive hours. A final agreement has not yet been reached on a set of guidelines for the rapidly developing technology used in popular platforms such as ChatGPT.

Thierry Breton, the European Commissioner, announced on Twitter that discussions, which started on Wednesday afternoon in Brussels and continued through the night, will continue on Friday morning.

“I have made significant advancements in the past 22 hours on the EU’s Artificial Intelligence Act,” he stated. “Keep an eye out for updates!”

Leaders from the group of 27 countries in the bloc, along with legislators and top officials, are facing pressure to reach a consensus on the main AI Act. They have been engaged in lengthy discussions regarding contentious issues such as generative AI and the use of AI for facial recognition by law enforcement.

There was a dispute about the regulation of foundation models, which are complex systems that support AI services such as ChatGPT and Google’s Bard chatbot.

The European Union officials are pushing for a complete prohibition of facial recognition technology due to worries about privacy. However, they are in disagreement with governments of member nations who wish to utilize it for law enforcement purposes.

Authorities are eager to finalize a deal before the European Parliament concludes for bloc-wide elections next year. They are also working quickly to complete it before Spain’s term as the rotating EU presidency concludes at the end of December.

The AI Act will not go into effect until at least 2025 once it receives final approval.

Source: wral.com