Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: EU AI Act passed vote in Plenary meeting, published by Ariel G. on June 16, 2023 on The Effective Altruism Forum.

Mainly discussed in the linked article - keeping the post brief.

The newest EU AI Act parliament version passed an important vote, despite recent political uncertainty.

I found it fascinating to watch the the Plenary session (from June 13th, the vote was on the 14th), where the Act was discussed by various EU parties. A few things that stood out to me:

I was surprised that many EU country representatives mentioned the Open Letters and Existential Risk as a real concern, even though the EU AI Act was not originally intended to address it (though, it now has GPAI/foundation model bits added). Transparency and Fairness took a back seat, to some extent.

Real-time Biometric monitoring was a big debate topic - whether to giving an exemption for law enforcement or not, for national security. Currently it looks like it will not be allowed, other than post-incident with special approval. This may be a useful lever to keep in mind for policy work

Others that watched the stream, feel free to mention insights in the comments.

Linked here (relevant timestamp 12:39 - 14:33)

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