BRUSSELS — EU parliamentarians are digging in on calls to revive an artificial intelligence liability law after receiving support from an unexpected ally: Open AI’s Sam Altman. The proposal by the European Commission for an AI liability law was killed amid a deep effort in Brussels to deregulate and reduce the legislative burden on companies — with the Commission arguing at the time that the proposal had little chance of securing sufficient political support. German conservative lawmaker Axel Voss, who led on the proposal for the European Parliament, wants Brussels to put liability back on the agenda in light of Altman’s comments.
For years, the tech industry has argued that liability would stifle innovation,” he said. "Now even the CEO of OpenAI admits: Without liability, there is no trust.” The law, first proposed in 2022, “would have closed exactly the gap Altman is now describing: responsibility before deployment, during training and testing,” Voss said. One way governments could reduce AI risks is to apply product liability law, assigning responsibility (and penalties) to the makers of the most advanced AI models to nudge their development toward a safety-first approach.
As concerns over the pace of frontier AI development and the harm caused make the question of liability impossible to ignore — and as proposals for AI liability rules gain support around the world — proponents say the EU’s decision to scrap the proposal hasn't aged well. The Commission has defended its landmark AI Act in response to mounting incidents and fears, while leaving the door open to additional rules addressing liability. In response to questions by POLITICO last week, the EU’s tech chief Henna Virkkunen said she would look into potential “loopholes” in the current legislation, while reiterating the need to be “very careful” when crafting new rules.
The Commission didn't respond to POLITICO's request to comment for this article. Social democrat lawmaker Brando Benifei, who helped write the EU’s AI rulebook, on Tuesday called the withdrawal of the liability proposal “a serious mistake,” saying obligations emerging from the AI Act were originally meant to be complemented by the rules to hold the companies liable. Together with Irish independent lawmaker Michael McNamara and Greens member Kim van Sparrentak, the senior lawmakers are actively calling on the EU to introduce an AI liability act “to fill the legislative gaps currently existing for these kinds of incidents, so no people or European businesses are left empty-handed against these big providers when they cause harm,” POLITICO previously reported.
"We have an AI Act that regulates use, but we have no clear rules on who pays when a foundation model itself is flawed, biased or causes harm. This is not tenable,” Voss said. He said it's not too late for Brussels to take another U-turn.
As Brussels considers how to address new risks, the rest of the world will be watching. Eliza Gkritsi contributed to this report.
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