Blog Post

Purpose

• The European Commission introduced the Act to establish a regulatory framework within the Union for the development of AI.
• The purpose of the Act is to create an ‘ecosystem of trust’ that manages AI risk and prioritizes human rights in the development and deployment of AI.

Duties on enterprises

• All AI deployment is subject to transparency obligations to declare to users that they are interacting with an AI and allow users to opt-out.
• High-risk AI deployment is subject to risk-management obligations to:
• Establish risk-management systems through the AI system’s lifecycle;
• Validate, test, and train data to ensure their quality;
• Provide detailed documentation for third-party assessment;
• Declare accuracy, robustness and security strategies for the mitigation of systemic failure;
• Ensure appropriate human oversight of AI systems.

What are high-risk AI systems?

• Systems are high-risk when they threaten the enjoyment of individuals’ basic rights and interests.
• The AI Act only lists a number of use-cases as high-risk:
  • Biometric identification
  • Management of critical infrastructure
  • Educational assessment and access
  • Employment decisions
  • Access to essential services (private and public)
  • Law enforcement
  • Migration and border control
• The Act empowers the Commission to extend this list. Additions are likely to focus on AI affecting the civil rights of individuals.

Who’s in scope?

• Any company using AI systems that are on the market or produce outputs used on the market in the EU.
• This scope includes US-based enterprises with operations affecting EU citizens.

What’s the risk?

• Noncompliant enterprises face administrative fines from 4 to 6% of global revenue, and from EUR 20 to 30 million.

Strategic evaluation

• Access to the European market is critical for enterprises in the digital economy.
• As with GDPR, European standards are likely to be adopted across a broad range of jurisdictions, which means that compliance with the EU AI Act is likely to be of wider importance.

AI Act compliance with Holistic AI

• HolisticAI’s research team has published and consulted widely on the EU AI Act and is firmly embedded in the European regulatory ecosystem.
• Although there are other services offering governance support for EU compliance, HolisticAIhas the unique capacity to evaluate companies’ technical and governance systems for compliance with the incoming legislation.
• HolisticAI’s is at the forefront of risk-mitigation innovation, allowing companies to manage risk sufficiently for compliance whilst optimizing their technical capacities.
• HolisticAI’s subscription package for on-going monitoring and support offers companies a cost-effective solution to life-cycle management of AI.