Behind EU lawmakers' challenge to rein in ChatGPT and generative AI
As recently as February, generative AI did not feature prominently in EU lawmakers' plans for regulating artificial intelligence technologies such as ChatGPT.
The bloc's 108-page proposal for the AI Act, published two years earlier, included only one mention of the word "chatbot." References to AI-generated content largely referred to deepfakes: images or audio designed to impersonate human beings.
By mid-April, however, members of European Parliament (MEPs) were racing to update those rules to catch up with an explosion of interest in generative AI, which has provoked awe and anxiety since OpenAI unveiled ChatGPT six months ago.
That scramble culminated on Thursday with a new draft of the legislation which identified copyright protection as a core piece of the effort to keep AI in check.
Interviews with four lawmakers and two other sources close to discussions reveal for the first time how over just 11 days this small group of politicians hammered out what could become landmark legislation, reshaping the regulatory landscape for OpenAI and its competitors.
The draft bill is not final and lawyers say it will likely take years to come into force.
The speed of their work, though, is also a rare example of consensus in Brussels, which is often criticised for the slow pace of decision-making.
Since launching in November, ChatGPT has become the fastest growing app in history, and sparked a flurry of activity from Big Tech competitors and investment in generative AI startups like Anthropic and Midjourney.
The runaway popularity of such applications led EU industry chief Thierry Breton and others to call for regulation of ChatGPT-like services.
An organisation backed by Elon Musk, the billionaire CEO of Tesla Inc and Twitter, took it up
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