GitHub's chief legal officer, Shelley McKinley, is heavily involved in legal matters surrounding AI, including the EU AI Act, which aims to regulate AI applications based on their risks. GitHub has been vocal about concerns that the regulations could create legal liability for open source software developers. McKinley's role also involves overseeing accessibility, environmental sustainability, and trust and safety issues. GitHub's AI-enabled pair-programming tool, Copilot, has sparked controversy within the developer community, with concerns about copyright violations and attribution. The EU AI Act now includes exemptions for open source AI models, but the impact on developers and open source technology remains to be seen.
The European Union's AI Act, which aims to regulate the use of artificial intelligence, has been provisionally agreed upon by the EU's three branches. However, the specific changes required from AI companies and the enforcement timeline remain unclear. Major AI players like OpenAI, Microsoft, Google, and Meta are expected to continue competing for dominance while navigating regulatory uncertainty in the US. The AI Act has faced criticism from some member states and industry leaders who argue that it hampers innovation and could make the EU an unattractive market for AI. The rules also do not address controversial issues around generative AI and copyrighted data. The act is seen as a potential influence on other countries' AI regulations, including the US, which has yet to establish comprehensive AI regulation.
Stanford University researchers found that no current large language models (LLMs) used in AI tools like OpenAI's GPT-4 and Google's Bard are compliant with the European Union (EU) Artificial Intelligence (AI) Act. The study evaluated ten major model providers and revealed a wide discrepancy in compliance levels, with only one provider scoring above 75%. The researchers proposed several recommendations for improving AI regulation, including ensuring that the AI Act holds larger foundation model providers to account for transparency and accountability.
The European Parliament has approved the EU AI Act, the first comprehensive regulations for artificial intelligence (AI) in the West. The rules will bring generative AI tools under greater restrictions and require developers to submit their systems for review before releasing them commercially. The Parliament also upheld a ban on real-time biometric identification systems and "social scoring" systems. The laws have implications for developers of generative AI models, such as Microsoft-backed OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Bard. The next stage is for negotiators at EU institutions and 27 member states.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has threatened that the company may leave the EU if the bloc "overregulates" AI. Altman has been meeting with top politicians in Europe to discuss the future of AI and progress of ChatGPT. EU lawmakers responsible for shaping the AI Act disputed Altman's claims, stating that they do not see any dilution happening anytime soon. Altman cancelled a scheduled visit to Brussels, where the EU AI Act is being drafted. OpenAI first clashed with regulators in March when Italian data regulator Garante shut the app down domestically, accusing OpenAI of flouting European privacy rules.
