G7 should adopt ‘risk-based’ AI regulation, ministers say

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TAKASAKI — The Group of Seven developed nations should adopt “risk-based” regulation over artificial intelligence, its digital ministers agreed Sunday, as European lawmakers rush to introduce AI law to enforce rules on emerging tools like ChatGPT.

In a joint statement released at the end of a two-day meeting in Japan, the G7 ministers said such regulation should also “maintain an open and conducive environment” for the development of AI technologies and be based on democratic values.

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While the ministers acknowledged that “policy tools to achieve the shared vision and common goal of trustworthy AI may differ among G7 members,” the agreement sets a milestone for how major countries can control AI amid privacy concerns and security risks.

“The results of the G7 meeting show that we are certainly not alone in this,” Margrethe Vestager, Executive Vice President of the European Commission, told Reuters before the deal.

Governments have paid particular attention to the popularity of generative AI tools such as ChatGPT, a chatbot developed by Microsoft-backed OpenAI that has become the fastest-growing app in history since its launch in November.

“We plan to hold future G7 discussions on generative AI which could include topics such as governance, how to protect intellectual property rights including copyright, promoting transparency, and addressing disinformation” including manipulation of information by foreign forces, the ministerial statement said.

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Italy, a member of the Group of Seven, shut down ChatGPT last month to investigate its possible breach of personal databases. While Italy lifted the ban on Friday, the move has inspired other European privacy regulators to launch investigations.

European Union lawmakers on Thursday reached tentative agreement on a new draft of the upcoming artificial intelligence law, including copyright protection measures for generative artificial intelligence, after world leaders called for a summit to control the technology.

Vestager, the EU’s head of technology regulation, said the bloc “will get a political agreement this year” on AI legislation, such as labeling obligations for AI-generated images or music, to address copyright and educational risks.

Meanwhile, Japan, this year’s G7 chair, took a developer-friendly approach to AI, pledging support for public and industrial adoption of AI.

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Industry Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura said Friday before the ministerial talks that Japan hopes to get the G7 to “agree on flexible or flexible governance, rather than blanket preventative regulation” on AI technology.

French Minister of Digital Transformation Jean-Noel Barrot told Reuters that a pause (the development of artificial intelligence) is not the right response – innovation must continue to evolve but within certain barriers that democracies have to put in place. Developers under the upcoming EU regulation.

Besides intellectual property concerns, the G7 countries have also acknowledged security risks. “Generative AI … produces fake news and disruptive solutions for society if the data on which it is based is fake,” Japan’s Digital Minister Taro Kono said at a press conference after the agreement.

The chief technology officials from the Group of Seven — Britain, Canada, the European Union, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States — met in Takasaki, a city about 100 kilometers (60 miles) northwest of Tokyo, after meetings of the energy and foreign ministers. This month.

Japan will host the G7 summit in Hiroshima in late May, where Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will discuss AI rules with world leaders. (Reporting by Kantaro Komiya in Takasaki, Japan; Additional reporting by Subanta Mukherjee in Stockholm; Editing by Lincoln Feast)