EU Member States Interpreting AI Governance Rules Differently, IAPP Says
Though boosting AI innovation is one of the EU’s top priorities for the next several years, member states are implementing and interpreting plans and rules differently from one another, said panelists during an IAPP webinar Wednesday. The session covered the European Commission's new mandate of priorities and policies, the EU AI Act, the AI Continent Action Plan and their impact on data governance programs.
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Recently, discussion has turned to the idea that “if Europe wants to be a key player and .... stakeholder in AI, it needs to do more than govern AI,” said Ashley Casovan, managing director of the AI Governance Center at the IAPP. She said the question is, “where are various different countries and regions going to land within this economic AI race that we're really starting to see emerge?”
“Europe, and the [AI] rules that it's putting forward, and the guidance that's coming … is going to be quite influential and really set the bar for what’s acceptable” in various parts of the world, Casovan said. However, each EU member state may approach things differently, offering non-EU states alot of choices.
Laura Pliauskaite, European operations coordinator for the IAPP, said that so far, “some [EU] countries are following more of a decentralized model, with many and very diverse authorities” overseeing AI, she said. “Other member states are adopting [a] more centralized model with only a few authorities responsible” for enforcement.
“As much as some of [the AI systems] are applicable throughout the economy [and] throughout society, there's a value as well [in] looking at sector-specific angle[s],” said Isabelle Roccia, Europe managing director at IAPP. The “risk profile will be different. Classification will vary. And so, having that sort of sectoral approach" can really enrich “the thinking around AI governance.”