The Artificial Intelligence Act aims to ensure that AI is trustworthy, safe and respects EU fundamental rights, while supporting innovation and making Europe a leader in the field. Brando BENIFEI (S&D, IT) and Dragos TUDORACHE (Renew, RO), co-rapporteurs, hold a press conference on this topic following the debate and the vote during this plenary. This transcription is the result of an automatic process. Please check against delivery.

Strasbourg

press conference

use of robotics and artificial intelligence (T)

BENIFEI, Brando (S&D, IT)

TUDORACHE, Dragoş (Renew, RO)

Press conference by Brando BENIFEI (S&D, IT) and Dragos TUDORACHE (Renew, RO), co-rapporteurs on AI Act plenary vote

https://api.multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/documents/20125/75431280/1710330864172_I254355Chapters%5BSD-EN%5D.srt

SOUNDBITE (Original), Brando BENIFEI (S&D, IT), co-rapporteur, I think today is again a historic day on our long path towards regulation of AI. We are finally approving, from the Parliament side, the AI act. And so with the final step that will take place in Council soon, the law will become a law of the European Union. The first regulation in the world that is putting a clear path towards a safe and human-centric development of AI.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Brando BENIFEI (S&D, IT), co-rapporteur, Clearly today, as we talked many times about the content and what we achieved in this regulation, I want to underline that the long negotiations that took place in December especially, and then the work thereafter was crucial to safeguard the important priorities of the European Parliament in the final text. The part of the prohibitions has been strengthened, in the sense that the Parliament wanted. We have included the part that was mostly written by us, on transparency and on safety on the most powerful models.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Brando BENIFEI (S&D, IT), co-rapporteur, So I think we really got -for one time, because it is not so frequent- the text that reflects a lot the European Parliament's priorities that was able to work united with all the team. I worked very well with my colleague Dragos Tudorache, but also with all the team of the Parliament that stood still in a complex negotiation to promote our priorities. Including the environmental objectives that were added also from the side of the Parliament. A very important topic.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Brando BENIFEI (S&D, IT), co-rapporteur, Today, as I said, the main point from our side is maybe more about the next phases. After the approval of this law, the main point now will be implementation and accompanying the gradual, voluntary, compliance of businesses and institutions that will have to apply this law, with graduality. Because at the beginning it will not be fully mandatory. There is a timeline of the mandatory ness of this legislation. First of all, the first to kick in will be the prohibitions.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Brando BENIFEI (S&D, IT), co-rapporteur, This is important for us because we want to clarify that some use cases are prohibited and not welcomed in Europe. And this will be finalised as a mandatory commitment before the end of this year. And then the rest will be put in place. And finally, I want to say that now there is the need for us and the Parliament to do its part for not closing our work on this, but rather develop more our model of AI development in Europe.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Brando BENIFEI (S&D, IT), co-rapporteur, Which means working on further legislation in the next mandate. For example, we demanded already as Parliament to have a directive on conditions of the workplace and AI, which is partly tackled by the regulation, but it could be further enhanced with a specific directive. But also, we want Europe to invest in artificial intelligence to do more for common research, to do more in sharing the computational capability, the work of the supercomputers.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Brando BENIFEI (S&D, IT), co-rapporteur, And to complete the capital markets union, because we need to be able to invest on AI with more easiness than today. We risk today that some investors prefer to invest in US than in another European country, in another European company. And this is something, again, linked to the our competitiveness on the development of our model of AI.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Dragoş TUDORACHE (Renew, RO), co-rapporteur, I will try not to repeat what my very good colleague and co-rapporteur, Brando Benifei, has stated already. Maybe I will look a bit to the journey that took us to the moment today when we have the final vote, and also to the journey that I think actually begins today and will follow suit for the years to come. I think for the journey of the act itself, at least for us in this Parliament. The journey started before the proposal of the Commission was put forward.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Dragoş TUDORACHE (Renew, RO), co-rapporteur, We had a special committee on artificial intelligence here in this House, which allowed us to look at the impact of artificial intelligence both in the good and the bad. We have looked at the impact of the potential, of the benefits that artificial intelligence brings to our societies and our economies. And I think we have a duty to recognise this potential, because it is going to be the technology that will be driving us into the future.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Dragoş TUDORACHE (Renew, RO), co-rapporteur, And at the same time, through the hearings, the study groups that we have done here in Parliament, we realise that clearly there are risks, there are concerns that the intersection between this technology and our individual rights and the interests of our societies bring forward. And therefore, when we started the legislative journey, once the proposal of the Commission came, for us it was evident from the first day that we have to work on these two objectives in parallel. And deliver legislation that that on one side, creates the enablers for business to wish to remain and create and innovate here in Europe and put as many enablers in place for them to do so.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Dragoş TUDORACHE (Renew, RO), co-rapporteur, And at the same time enhance as much as we can the protection that we thought was imperative to guarantee our citizens and to guarantee our societies that they can actually trust this technology, they can trust the uptake of technology in our lives in a way that does not harm our human interests. And I think that the text that we're voting today is delivering the objectives. We managed to find that very delicate balance between the interest to innovate and the interest to protect.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Dragoş TUDORACHE (Renew, RO), co-rapporteur, As also my colleague said, the work of this Parliament, the contribution of this Parliament on both sides of that coin, on both sides of this legislation; has been significant. And many of the innovations that are in the legislation, many of the important points there in the text, they have originated from the amendments, from the thinking and the negotiation that was done in this House. And I'm also very grateful to our whole team of rapporteurs and the team of advisers and assistants that have helped us get to this stage.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Dragoş TUDORACHE (Renew, RO), co-rapporteur, Now, looking into the future, what's going to happen from today onwards? Because as I also said yesterday in the plenary, in fact, this act is only the beginning of a longer journey. Because AI is going to have an impact that we cannot only measure. So this act is going to have an impact on education systems, is going to have an impact on our labour market, is going to have an impact on warfare. So there's a whole new world out there that opens up where AI is going to play a central part in it.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Dragoş TUDORACHE (Renew, RO), co-rapporteur, Therefore from this point onwards, as we are also going to build the governance that comes out of the act, we'll have to be very mindful of this evolution of the technology in the future and be prepared to respond to new challenges that might come out of this evolution of technology. There is another point which I consider to be very important, and which for us along this journey has been very crucial, which is that we are not alone.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Dragoş TUDORACHE (Renew, RO), co-rapporteur, So yes, as a Union, I think we have given a signal to the whole world that we take this very seriously, that we have identified, worked on, defined a model. What we call now the risk-based approach, which is now recognised more and more in jurisdictions around the world, to be the way to look and the way to tackle, from a regulatory point of view, this technology. Now we have to be open to work with others in how we will be promoting this model, towards other jurisdictions that might be interested to follow suit and even those that would not be interested to go down this path.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Dragoş TUDORACHE (Renew, RO), co-rapporteur, I think we still have a duty to try to be as interoperable as possible, to be open to build a governance, with as many democracies, with as many like-minded partners out there because the technology is one, irrespective of which corner of the world you might be in. Therefore, we have to invest in joining up this governance in a framework that makes sense. And also it's a governance that has to be prepared for quantum leaps in this technology.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Dragoş TUDORACHE (Renew, RO), co-rapporteur, I also mentioned it, yesterday in the plenary. I think we have to be prepared for that moment when this technology is going to surprise us with its capabilities, maybe reach that moment, which is being foreseen by scientists out there. That moment when we will be having some form of artificial general intelligence. And I think that will require also from us joining up the governances that we are now investing in, to respond to ethical, to moral questions, that will be arising out of that evolution.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Dragoş TUDORACHE (Renew, RO), co-rapporteur, So a very important point today. It's a starting point. And now implementation is going to be key. We have to land all of this new set of rules, not only about the AI act. All of these digital, legislative instruments that we have worked on during this mandate. They all have to now, in a way, join up, bring some harmony to how they will be implemented, and invest in the mandate that opens up after the elections in June this year. Open up for an implementation pass that will, on one hand, give certainty to all businesses and at the same time give certainty to our citizens. Thank you.

Q&A, Questions regarding biometric mass surveillance, and the potential to hinder innovation of European start-ups.

Q&A, Question regarding pressure from large tech companies regarding the AI act.

Q&A, Question regarding lobbying by French AI company Mistral.

Q&A, Question regarding the direction some member states have taken in dealing with AI, and whether measures taken by member states so far align with what the AI act envisions.