The developer advocate notes the act’s lack of clarity and asks for reasonable legal standards, similar to those applied for human decision making.
Washington D.C., August 5th, 2021 – The Developers Alliance has submitted as feedback its position regarding the European Commission’s Proposal For A Regulation On Artificial Intelligence (AI Act).
In their position, the Developers Alliance commends the objectives and the risk-based approach of the Commission’s proposal. They call on the EU co-legislators, however, to address a series of critical issues so the regulation will be fit for purpose and to reduce the competitive disadvantage for European developers:
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set legally clear definitions and limit the scope to clearly defined high risk use cases of AI, in line with the declared objectives of the regulation,
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provide clear and reasonable rules for high risk use cases of AI, focused on the deployment phase, and less preemptive requirements for the development phase when the intended purposes might not be obvious (as in the case of general-purpose and open-source AI solutions),
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ensure reduced regulatory burdens for startups and SMEs and set up a solid framework for regulatory sandboxes as incentives for innovation and entrepreneurship,
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remove the proposal’s extraterritorial reach to avoid potential barriers to trade on products and services created outside the EU that contain no AI themselves,
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recognise that AI systems are by definition modelled on human decision making, with all their weaknesses and strengths. Holding AI to an absolute standard where an equivalent human process is viewed under a reasonableness standard is legally inconsistent.”
“We call on the EU co-legislators to set out legally clear and reasonable requirements for specific high-risk uses of AI,” stated Director of EU Policy and Head of Brussels Office, “with focus on the phase when AI solutions are put into use and the intended purpose is obvious. Legal uncertainty and disproportionate conditions will only put the European AI developers at disadvantage and deprive the EU market of advanced AI solutions.“
The full position paper can be found here.
The filing can be found on the European Commission’s site here.
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About The Developers Alliance
The Developers Alliance is the world’s leading advocate for software developers and the companies invested in their success. Alliance members include industry leaders in consumer, enterprise, industrial, and emerging software development, and a global network of more than 70,000 developers.
