Trustworthy AI through regulation? Sketching the European approach

In this #4 post of the Symposium "Hitchhikers Guide to Law & Tech", Nathalie Smuha and Anna Morandini continue asking fundamental questions on the interaction between regulation and technology. Can the European AI Act mitigate the ethical and legal concerns raised by this hyped technology? Which trail is the EU blazing to secure "Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence" in Europe, as distinct from the laissez-faire approach in the US and the state-centric approach in China? In this post, both authors unpack the proposed AI regulation and evaluate its merits and pitfalls. After explaining the build-up towards the proposal, they set out the scope of the Act and its four categories of risks as part of a "risk-based approach" to regulate AI.