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Artificial Intelligence Act (debate)
The transformative impact of AI on society and the economy are beginning to emerge. Europe needs to build a society that respects fundamental rights and individual freedoms, and still can compete with the US and China in terms of technological advancement and economic competition. The AI Act is an important step towards this direction. As Vice-Chair of the AIDA Committee and as the S&D Group’s shadow rapporteur in the opinion of ITRE Committee I am delighted it contains several important obligations to mitigate the risks AI may cause for our societies and citizens such as fundamental right assessments. The AI Act creates a framework for ethical and trustworthy AI development and deployment. It includes important obligations to safeguard citizens’ rights and creates balance for security and innovation. When we started to work with the legislation in the AIDA committee people were telling AI cannot be regulated, it’s too complicated. The EU has broken this taboo. However, regulating AI is not enough. In addition we need to enhance and support European AI innovation ecosystems, and ensure development of competitive and ethical European language models. That’s why I welcome the Commission’s AI Innovation Package as an important addition to the AI Act.