EU technology chief says the EU is capable of preventing out-of-control AI risks

EU technology chief Henna Virkkunen said the AI Act, adopted by the EU two years ago, is sufficient to deal with out-of-control AI agents and that the EU is well prepared on model safety. She said the AI Act covers the full lifecycle of these models, that regulators are providing guidance on how to assess models and how much time to allocate to companies, and that they will take into account recommendations from a scientific panel of 60 AI experts from universities and institutions. At the end of August, the European Commission sent requests for information to more than 30 AI companies asking about their safety measures, and then followed up with questions on transparency and copyright obligations; such requests may lead to investigations, with fines of up to 7% of a company's global annual turnover. Virkkunen said the responses are being assessedhol and that requests for information had also been sent to Chinese AI startups.