Philipp Hacker’s Post

In the news: I did not make it to the hairdresser before, but thank you to Christian Feld and Tagesschau for still featuring me on the German evening news for the start of the AI Act general-purpose AI model rules. We discussed a number of things; the quote that ended up on TV is about copyright transparency rules on how they might enable follow-on damage claims by rights holders. It is a bit hard, however, to do justice to a highly complex regulatory regime in 15 second statements :-) So, here's my more extended take: 1) I am quite happy about: – the prohibitions (Article 5) – AI literacy (Article 4) – general transparency (Article 50) – the GPAI rules (Articles 51-56) See: https://lnkd.in/enjKwNT2 2) I have more mixed feelings about the high-risk rules, particularly due to unresolved interactions with sectoral regulations, the GDPR, and tort law. See: https://lnkd.in/e6UAd_ai 3) The simplification process will hopefully be a good point to clean this up without gutting the core parts of the Act (see 1)). 4) The concept of "systemic risk" remains an epic fail due to the unnecessary restriction to the "most advanced" models. Hallucinations – a key problem with Generative AI – are likely not covered, for example. Paper on this forthcoming. 5) Regulation is, of course, not generally bad for innovation. Empirical studies show that it very much depends on the type of regulation, and that legal regimes can actually foster innovation. Europe's problems with AI advancement have little to do with the AI Act and a lot with lack of VC financing, access to a absolute top-notch talent, and the general risk mentality among significant parts of the population and incumbent entrepreneurs. See: https://lnkd.in/e43tuk7J; https://lnkd.in/emQEvHFJ; https://lnkd.in/emvfVY59 6) Now: off to the mountains for some decent digital detox. Enjoy your summer! European New School of Digital Studies Europa-Universität Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder)