European publishers welcome EU agreement on AI Act

In Europe, the Federation of European Publishers (FEP) has welcomed the European Union voting in favour of what the FEP calls the ‘world’s first concrete regulation of AI’, reported the Bookseller.

The Committee of Permanent Representatives in the European Union voted in favour of the EU Artificial Intelligence (AI) Act on 2 February; the Act now needs sign-off from EU lawmakers before the rules enter into force.

The AI Act requires that general purpose AI (such as generative AI) respect copyright law and are transparent on the data used for their training. ‘This transparency obligation is essential to allow publishers to enforce their rights and ensure that their works have not been used illegally for the training of an AI,’ said the FEP in a statement. ‘It will complement existing copyright obligations that notably allow rights holders to opt-out their works from text-and-data mining uses and support the development of a licensing ecosystem.’

FEP officials said the regulation seeks to ‘ensure the ethical and human-centric development of this technology and prevent abusive or illegal practices’.

Category: International news