Members of the European Parliament closed several critical parts of the AI regulation at a political meeting on Thursday (13 April), but the prohibited uses of AI could potentially divide the house. The AI Act is a landmark legislation to regulate Artificial Intelligence based on its capacity to cause harm, and while MEPs are approaching a political deal on the file with a key committee vote scheduled for 26 April, the plenary adoption will be challenging. The most politically sensitive part discussed during the political meeting with all the groups on Thursday was prohibited practices, applications deemed to pose an unacceptable risk. High-risk categorisation, enforcement and governance are largely settled. EU lawmakers in the leading European Parliament committees are voting on the political agreement on the AI Act on 26 April, with many questions being settled but a few critical issues still open. The German liberals proposed introducing a provision banning "the use of an AI system for the general monitoring, detection and interpretation of private content in interpersonal communication services, including all measures that would undermine end-to-end encryption."

The Italian privacy watchdog mandated a ban on the popular chatbot ChatGPT and launched an investigation on its provider OpenAI for suspected breaches of EU data protection rules. Italy's Garante for the protection of personal data on Friday (31 March) accused the AI system of breaching the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and failing to implement age verification systems. The blocking of the site for Italian users is temporary and will last until the provider OpenAI respects the EU privacy framework when processing the personal data of Italian users. The Italian data protection authority has also initiated an investigation into the American tech company. Launched in November, ChatGPT has been notorious for its unprecedented ability to generate human-like text based on prompts.

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 Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) published a report on Thursday (8 December) dissecting how biases develop in algorithms apply to predictive policing and content moderation models. The research concludes by calling on EU policymakers to ensure that these AI applications are tested for biases that could lead to discrimination. This study comes as the proposal on the Artificial Intelligence Act makes its way through the legislative process, with the European Parliament particularly considering the introduction of a fundamental rights impact assessment for AI systems at high risk of causing harm. "Well-developed and tested algorithms can bring a lot of improvements. But without appropriate checks, developers and users run a high risk of negatively impacting people's lives," said FRA's director Michael O'Flaherty.

The EU should move on from'outdated' debates over front-of-pack labelling and instead focus on tailor-made technological solutions for the future of nutrition, experts told a recent panel – but critics say this privileges only the richest in society. The European Commission is expected to put forward its proposal for an EU-wide nutritional labelling system in early 2023. The current front runner is the Nutriscore, a controversial colour-coded system championed by France which ranks food from A to E. The score has proven divisive, especially among stakeholders in Europe's South, who argue the score penalises the Mediterranean diet. But, for Pietro Paganini, co-founder of the EU think-tank Competere, the debate is redundant. Instead, efforts should focus on technological developments and personalised diets rather than'old outdated system[s]' such as front-of-pack nutritional labelling.

The United States is pushing for a narrower Artificial Intelligence definition, a broader exemption for general purpose AI and an individualised risk assessment in the AI Act, according to a document obtained by EURACTIV. The non-paper is dated October 2022 and was sent to targeted government officials in some EU capitals and the European Commission. It follows much of the ideas and wording of the initial feedback sent to EU lawmakers last March. "Many of our comments are prompted by our growing cooperation in this area under the U.S.-EU Trade and Technology Council (TTC) and concerns over whether the proposed Act will support or restrict continued cooperation," the document reads. The document is a reaction to the progress made by the Czech Presidency of the EU Council on the AI regulation last month.

Each political group of the European Parliament has submitted several hundred amendments, bringing the total to several thousand. The deluge has come equally from the left and the right – and will now have to be reconciled in a summer of negotiations. One of the most controversial topics is on definitions. Left-of-center parliamentarians are pushing for a broad general definition of artificial intelligence (AI) rather than accepting a narrow list of AI techniques. Their goal is to make the regulation future-proof.

Three systems that verify peoples' age with AI technology to prevent minors from being exposed to harmful content have been endorsed by Germany's Commission for the Protection of Minors in the Media. The commission is Germany's central supervisory body for the protection of minors on private nationwide television and the internet. These AI systems, which the body has given a positive rating, are trained by machine learning to assess a person's age based on biometric characteristics. "The fact that AI can now also be used for age verification and thus to protect children and young people from problematic content is an important, new step," said the commission's chairman, Marc Jan Eumann, in a press release last week (24 May). According to Eumann, the use of AI in this area is a "milestone in the technical protection of children and young people in media.

Ahead of the artificial intelligence regulation, MEPs insisted that its use by law enforcement authorities and in the judiciary be subject to tight controls in Strasbourg on Monday (October 4). "The idea behind this report is not only to catch up but to create a framework", rapporteur, MEP Petar Vitanov (S&D), told EURACTIV. Although not binding, the new report on artificial intelligence (AI) in criminal matters could pave the way for the European Parliament's to back a risk-based approach, while MEPs will soon have to consider the AI Act proposed by the Commission in April. The text sets out the "principles of fairness, data minimisation, accountability, transparency, non-discrimination and explainability" in order to protect fundamental rights. "AI can be very useful", said Vitanov, but "we are trying to separate the areas where it can be useful from those that bring subjective results". "Facial recognition in the public spaces can easily be turned into mass surveillance", Viatnov said.

After decades spent discussing how and what to teach in the classrooms, the focus is now turning more to implementation, experts said at the World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) conference in Doha, hosted by the Qatar Foundation on 19-21 November. Ministers and education experts discussed in Doha how to reap the benefits of the digital revolution as new challenges arise from teaching students across the world in the era of artificial intelligence. OECD countries spend on average 4.5% of their GDP on education. At the same time, education itself is transforming to adapt to a changing planet. The constant retooling of labour skills will be a central element of a European Commission paper on the future of the EU social pillar, to be published on 26 April, EURACTIV.com In an increasingly uncertain and unstable world, citizens are expected to become life-long learners in order to remain relevant for a fast-changing labour market that will be disrupted by machines.