Open Letter: AI Act should keep its horizontal scope (AI Omnibus)
ALLAI co-signed an open letter together with TÜV, Dekra, The Future Society, AlgorithmWatch, OKF, AI Policy Lab and ForHumanity, urgently calling on EU Governments to respect the ‘horizontal scope’ of the AI Act.
The AI Omnibus process jeopardized the AI Act and its protections across the board, but one particular proposal that has been floated deserves immediate attention: moving the harmonized products from ANNEX IA to IB. This might look trivial at first sight but, as Laura Caroli already pointed out in her blogpost “The Pandora Box is Officially Open”, it could have enormous negative consequences, for businesses and society alike.
If accepted, this ‘move’ would result in numerous product areas having to draw up its own AI rules (in line with the AI Act), with no deadline. Separate (amendments to) directives and regulations, and additional implementing acts would have to be drawn up and agreed upon for AI-machines (robots), AI-toys, AI medical devices, AI-safety components for lifts, etc, etc. This would not only jeopardize the health, safety and fundamental rights that the current horizontal approach aims to protect, it also leads to legal fragmentation and uncertainty for businesses and public actors, and eventually will stifle innovation.
The signatories hence express this urgent call to all EU Governments and MEPs not to take this route.
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