While the EU AI Act may not likely have an immediate impact on the legal and tax professions — similar to the recent U.S. Executive Order on AI, which primarily focused on the technology and government sectors — its passing does signal a willingness from lawmakers to tackle AI usage.
Still, as a first step by any global regulatory body, some concern was voiced by business interests who may fear innovation being curtailed or potential copycat bills being passed.
“We have a deal, but at what cost?…We fully supported a risk-based approach based on the uses of AI, not the technology itself, but the last-minute attempt to regulate foundation models has turned this on its head.”
Cecilia Bonefeld-Dahl, the Director General of DigitalEurope
Indeed, because the act does more than regulate use cases, focusing on the foundational systems themselves, it could mean that tech companies will likely face an increased regulatory burden, including the technology providers that service professional services firms.
However, there is no reason to believe these increased regulatory requirements will slow generative AI’s spread. When Future of Professionals respondents noted the top challenges that they thought AI needed to overcome before widespread adoption, the top answers included new skills and training, system accuracy and reliability, job losses from automation, and adapting to change — none of which are factors that will be heavily influenced by a new regulation.
Source: Thomson Reuters
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