Fox News Flash top headlines are here. Check out what's clicking on Foxnews.com. BRUSSELS (AP) -- European Union lawmakers approved Wednesday a major revamp of the bloc's migration laws, hoping to end years of division over how to manage the entry of thousands of people without authorization and deprive the far right of a vote-winning campaign issue ahead of June elections. In a series of 10 votes, members of the European Parliament endorsed the regulations and policies that make up the Pact on Migration and Asylum. The reforms address the thorny issue of who should take responsibility for migrants when they arrive and whether other EU countries should be obliged to help. The proceedings were briefly interrupted by a small but noisy group of demonstrators in the public gallery who wore shirts marked "this pact kills" and shouted "vote no!" European Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson, is embraced after Members of the European Parliament participated in a series of votes during a plenary session at the European Parliament in Brussels, Wednesday, April 10, 2024.

LONDON/STOCKHOLM – As recently as February, generative AI did not feature prominently in EU lawmakers' plans for regulating generative artificial intelligence technologies such as ChatGPT. The bloc's 108-page proposal for the AI Act, published two years earlier, included only one mention of the word "chatbot." References to AI-generated content largely referred to deepfakes: images or audio designed to impersonate human beings. By mid-April, however, members of European Parliament (MEPs) were racing to update those rules to catch up with an explosion of interest in generative AI, which has provoked awe and anxiety since OpenAI unveiled ChatGPT six months ago. This could be due to a conflict with your ad-blocking or security software.

The European Parliament agreed to close a critical contentious point of the AI Act by adopting the definition used by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Most other definitions have also been agreed upon, with new measures like a right to explanation also on the table of EU lawmakers. Last Friday (3 March), representatives of the European Parliament's political groups working on the AI Act reached a political agreement on one of the most politically sensitive parts of the file, the very definition of Artificial Intelligence, according to two European Parliament officials. The AI Act is a flagship legislative proposal to regulate this emerging technology based on its capacity to cause harm. What is defined as Artificial Intelligence will be highly consequential as it will also define the scope of the EU's AI rulebook.

The European Union has been digging into the competition implications of AI-powered voice assistants and other Internet of Things (IoT) connected technologies for almost a year. Today it's put out a first report discussing potential concerns that EU lawmakers say will help inform their wider digital policymaking in the coming years. A major piece of EU legislation introduced at the back of last year is already set to apply ex ante regulations to so-called'gatekeeper' platforms operating in the region, with a list of business practice'dos and don'ts' for powerful, intermediating platforms being baked into the forthcoming pan-EU Digital Services Act. The bloc's competition chief, Margrethe Vestager, has also had her eye on voice assistant AI technologies for a while -- raising concerns about the challenges being posed for user choice as far back as 2019, when she said her department was "trying to figure out how access to data will change the marketplace". The Commission took a concrete step last July when it announced a sectoral inquiry to examine IoT competition concerns in detail.

The European Union's lead data protection supervisor has called for remote biometric surveillance in public places to be banned outright under incoming AI legislation. The European Data Protection Supervisor's (EDPS) intervention follows a proposal, put out by EU lawmakers on Wednesday, for a risk-based approach to regulating applications of artificial intelligence. The Commission's legislative proposal includes a partial ban on law enforcement's use of remote biometric surveillance technologies (such as facial recognition) in public places. But the text includes wide-ranging exceptions, and digital and humans rights groups were quick to warn over loopholes they argue will lead to a drastic erosion of EU citizens' fundamental rights. And last week a cross-party group of MEPs urged the Commission to screw its courage to the sticking place and outlaw the rights-hostile tech.

The European Commission is considering a temporary ban on the use of facial recognition technology, according to a draft proposal for regulating artificial intelligence obtained by Euroactiv. Creating rules to ensure AI is'trustworthy and human' has been an early flagship policy promise of the new Commission, led by president Ursula von der Leyen. But the leaked proposal suggests the EU's executive body is in fact leaning towards tweaks of existing rules and sector/app specific risk-assessments and requirements, rather than anything as firm as blanket sectoral requirements or bans. The leaked Commission white paper floats the idea of a three-to-five-year period in which the use of facial recognition technology could be prohibited in public places -- to give EU lawmakers time to devise ways to assess and manage risks around the use of the technology, such as to people's privacy rights or the risk of discriminatory impacts from biased algorithms. "This would safeguard the rights of individuals, in particular against any possible abuse of the technology," the Commission writes, adding that: "It would be necessary to foresee some exceptions, notably for activities in the context of research and development and for security purposes."

BRUSSELS - Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg arrived to meet European Union lawmakers on Tuesday ready to apologize for a massive data leak, in his latest attempt to draw a line under a scandal that has rocked the world's biggest social media network. Zuckerberg agreed to meet leaders of the European Parliament to answer questions about how political consultancy Cambridge Analytica improperly got hold of the personal data of 87 million Facebook users, including up to 2.7 million in the EU. According to pre-released remarks, Zuckerberg will say it has become clear "over the last couple of years that we haven't done enough to prevent the tools we've built from being used for harm as well." "Whether it's fake news, foreign interference in elections or developers misusing people's information, we didn't take a broad enough view of our responsibilities. That was a mistake, and I'm sorry." His comments echo an apology last month to U.S. lawmakers, but questions remain over how Facebook let the leak happen and whether it is doing enough to prevent a recurrence.