ZEW Economist Dominik Rehse on the Outcome of the EU AI Act Trilogue

On 8 December 2023, representatives of the European Commission, the European Parliament, and the Council of the European Union reached a consensus on a new EU AI Act after several days of trilogue negotiations. This negotiation round was one of the last opportunities for an agreement before the 2024 European elections. Dominik Rehse, head of the Junior Research Group “Digital Market Design” at ZEW Mannheim, has commented on that matter:

“It is to be welcomed that the trilogue on the AI Act concluded with an agreement after prolonged negotiations. However, many questions remain unanswered. These include details on how exactly AI algorithms should be tested in critical application areas. The European Commission has tasked the European Standards Organisations with establishing harmonised standards for this purpose. These organisations, primarily composed of industry representatives, operate largely outside the public eye. They are likely to decide, for example, how thoroughly AI is actually tested and therefore how reliable AI models will be in critical areas of application. The EU Commission and other trilogue participants should consider it their responsibility to bring these discussions from behind closed doors to the public sphere and intervene if the developed harmonised standards are deemed too lenient.”