The EU’s proposed Artificial Intelligence Act (AIA) would create a risk-based framework for regulating AI, with designated “high-risk” sectors subject to a long list of rules that regulate how firms can design, train, and deploy AI systems. The law’s definition of AI is critical: It determines what types of software applications must abide by these obligations. However, the law’s definition of AI is so sweeping that it would regulate a broad array of software, creating significant costs and seriously damaging the European Commission’s Digital Decade ambitions. A narrower definition of an “AI system” will make the AIA more appropriately targeted and, accordingly, less expensive for the European economy.
More Than Meets The AI: The Hidden Costs of a European Software Law
Mikołaj Barczentewicz
Dr. Mikołaj Barczentewicz is a senior lecturer in law and the research director of the Law and Technology Hub at the University of Surrey. Dr. Barczentewicz is also a Research Associate of the University of Oxford Centre for Technology and Global Affairs and a Fellow of the Stanford Law School and University of Vienna Transatlantic Technology Law Forum. His research spans technology law and policy, UK and EU public law, and legal philosophy.
Benjamin Mueller
Benjamin Mueller is a senior policy analyst at the Center for Data Innovation, focusing on AI and technology governance. Prior to joining the Center he was chief of staff at a financial technology company in London. Dr. Mueller studied Politics, Philosophy and Economics at the University of Oxford, and completed his PhD in International Relations at the London School of Economics.
