From the perspective of the general public and society as a whole, so-called Artificial Intelligence (AI) was largely invisible until OpenAI removed the veil over GPT-3.5/ChatGPT in 2022.
Since then, the interest and use of AI, and General Purpose AI (GPAI), has exploded. AI implementations are creeping in everywhere, to great benefit in many respects. However, the warning signs are many — manipulated images, fabricated conversations, falsified news stories, and fake video-presented events can lead to unforeseeable negative consequences, for instance in influencing democratic elections.
This is also the case when AI is used to make decisions, since we know that there is always a risk of “AI hallucinations” where AI software produces incorrect or misleading information.
This simplified outline can serve as background for the EU’s AI Act, whose purpose is to put a societal control over the use and influence of AI/GPAI in particular, and the big tech companies in general.
So let’s dig into the matter, with the aim to describe what EU AI Act is, and to clarify its consequences, if any, for Runbox.
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