European Union: Adopted Council general approach on AI Act including service access restrictions for AI systems posing “unacceptable risk”

On 6 December 2022, the Council of the European Union adopted its general approach on the Artificial Intelligence act (AI Act), including a ban on AI systems posing "unacceptable risk". In its approach, the Council changes the definition of "artificial intelligence system". The AI system is defined as a "system that is designed to operate with elements of autonomy and that, based on machine and/or human-provided data and inputs, infers how to achieve a given set of objectives using machine learning and/or logic- and knowledge-based approaches" to generated outputs, including content, recommendations, predictions or decisions that influence the environment they with which they interact. In particular, the general approach expands the scope of the AI act to prohibit private entities, not only public authorities, from using AI for social scoring. Furthermore, under the general approach, AI systems that could endanger people's safety and rights, including those that exploit the vulnerabilities of socially and economically vulnerable groups, would be prohibited. In case of non-compliance, companies risk a fine of up to EUR 30 million or 6% of the company's global annual revenue. The Council added a new provision specifying that small and medium-sized enterprises would face a fine of up to 3% of their yearly turnover.