@LuizaJarovsky
🚨 In 2 weeks, a final decision on amendments to the EU AI Act and the GDPR will be made. What is at stake is nothing other than the future of Europe. Many don't know, but the stream of events leading to this moment began much earlier, with the publication of the Draghi report on European competitiveness in September 2024. In his long report, Mario Draghi diagnosed various areas in which European competitiveness was lagging behind and suggested that one of the reasons was overregulation and the excessive number of laws governing the digital space. Laws such as the GDPR and the AI Act were to blame. Before I continue, here is something many overlook: the Draghi report was finalized in September 2024, while the AI Act was officially enacted one month earlier. The AI Act had barely been enacted, and it was already considered 'wrong,' excessive, and to blame for Europe's less-than-ideal (to be light) position in the AI race. From that moment on, the European discourse on the protection of fundamental rights was never the same. Its narrative shifted, and after that, the new dogma was that the path to innovation would be to "remove the red tape," and "apply the AI Act in a business-friendly way." (whatever that means from a legal perspective). The AI Action Summit last year made this new narrative loud and clear to the public, as EU officials abandoned fundamental rights-focused statements. Last year, the narrative shift was legally materialized. The EU published the Digital Omnibus with proposed amendments to some of its most important laws regulating data protection and AI: the GDPR and the AI Act. Strangely, the main justification for the AI Act's amendments was the designation delays by EU member states and the work delays by EU standardization organizations. If these were the real reasons, wouldn't it be more coherent to pressure them to move faster, hire more people, increase the budget, or help address the bureaucratic obstacles...? Does the EU need to amend some of the AI Act’s core obligations because EU bodies are delayed? I didn't buy it. Given the context, it felt more like a broader political shift. The time has arrived, and in two weeks, EU officials will meet to make a final decision on the Digital Omnibus and the amendments to the GDPR and the AI Act (among other topics). As I wrote in my newsletter, several of the proposed amendments weaken AI regulation in the EU and go against the protection of fundamental rights. If you are European, if you were hopeful for a Brussels Effect in AI, or if you are interested in the protection of fundamental rights, I invite you to read my full article below. - 👉 To learn more: - Read my article about the Digital Ominibus first draft and join my newsletter's 93,500+ subscribers (link below). - Join the 29th cohort of my Advanced AI Governance Training. Among the topics I cover in depth are the EU AI Act, the Digital Omnibus, and the European AI strategy (link below).
