The European Union yesterday announced the creation of an "AI Office" of tech experts, lawyers and economists to regulate artificial intelligence (AI) under a sweeping new law.
The EU this year approved the world’s first comprehensive rules to govern AI, especially powerful systems like OpenAI’s ChatGPT after long, intense negotiations.
First proposed in 2021, the bloc raced to get the law in the books after ChatGPT burst onto the scene in 2022, leaving users stunned by its ability to churn out coherent text including poems within seconds.
Photo: AP
"The AI Office aims at enabling the future development, deployment and use of AI in a way that fosters societal and economic benefits and innovation, while mitigating risks," the European Commission said.
The 140-member AI Office will be established within the commission, which is the EU’s executive arm and also acts as the bloc’s powerful tech regulator.
"The Office will foster a European AI ecosystem that is innovative, competitive and respectful of EU rules and values," EU Commissioner for Internal Market and Defense Industry Thierry Breton said.
The EU’s law known as the "AI Act" has tougher rules for general-purpose AI systems such as ChatGPT and takes a risk-based approach to the technology.
The higher the risk to Europeans’ rights or health, for example, the greater the systems’ obligations to protect individuals from harms.
"Together with developers and a scientific community, the office will evaluate and test general purpose AI to ensure that AI serves us as humans and upholds our European values," EU Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager said.
Companies will have to comply with the EU’s law by 2026, but rules covering AI models like ChatGPT will apply 12 months after the law becomes official.
The EU’s announcement came on the same day that EU auditors criticized the commission for failing to sufficiently invest in AI to achieve the bloc’s ambitions.
"Going forward, stronger governance and more — and better targeted — public and private investment in the EU will be paramount if the EU is to achieve its AI ambitions," the bloc’s spending watchdog said.
But the commission defended the bloc’s record and said it was investing more than one billion euros (US$1.1 billion) annually in AI research projects under different schemes.
Taiwanese firms have increased investment in the Philippines in recent years as Manila’s ties with Washington deepen and global supply chains continue to shift away from China, an expert at the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The Philippines had not been among Taiwanese investors’ top choices in Southeast Asia, CIER Taiwan ASEAN Studies Center director Kristy Hsu (徐遵慈) said at a seminar in Taipei. However, Taiwan’s investment in the country has grown significantly since the COVID-19 pandemic, reaching US $257 million last year, a high in recent years, she said. Although Taiwan’s total investment in the Philippines still lags
HSBC Holdings PLC is deepening its commitment to Taiwan as the economy emerges as one of the bank’s fastest-growing markets globally, driven by an artificial intelligence (AI) investment boom, expanding cross-border trade, and rising wealth creation. “The advantage that Taiwan has is a growth story linked to the semiconductor and broader AI industries, strong underlying corporate performance, and wealth creation,” said Surendra Rosha, HSBC’s co-chief executive for Asia and the Middle East, in an exclusive interview with the Taipei Times on June 2, during this year’s HSBC Taiwan Conference. That combination has helped HSBC cement its position as the most profitable international
Intel Corp regards Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) as a longstanding partner, as the US chipmaker would continue outsourcing production of advanced chips to TSMC, Intel chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) said yesterday. “I don’t look at people as competitors. I look at the collaboration... Nvidia is also, you know, a good friend,” Tan told a news conference following his keynote speech at the Computex trade show in Taipei. “It’s a very trusted partnership for us... We are a big, top customer for them, and we’re going to continue doing that,” he said, referring to TSMC, the world’s largest foundry
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday said it would work with US chipmaker Intel Corp to jointly develop and deploy next-generation artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure and intelligent computing platforms in a move to capture booming demand for AI computing systems. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康), said in a statement that the partnership would combine its global manufacturing scale, system integration expertise and AI data center deployment capabilities with Intel’s strengths in processor architecture, silicon technologies and software ecosystem. The companies said they plan to work on equipment used in AI data centers, including server racks powered by
RSS