Under a landmark deal on the governance of artificial intelligence, the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, and several other countries signed the International AI Treaty of the Council of Europe Thursday in Lithuania. The treaty was hailed as the first legally binding international framework for AI use; the agreement was established by the Council of Europe, a France-based human rights organization.
This great power became joined by the signatures of Israel, Georgia, Norway, Iceland, Andorra, Moldova, and San Marino. Other countries participating in the negotiations included Japan, Argentina, Australia, Canada, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay, Costa Rica, and the Vatican.
In May 2023, the LPAI Treaty was adopted as an action plan in dealing with the rapid development of AI technology and possible misuses, such as deepfakes. It will provide a complete legal framework for the lifecycle of AI systems that adequately balances the requirement for responsible innovation with mitigation of associated risks.
This treaty is unlike the EU’s Artificial Intelligence Act, enacted early this month. In addition to being inaccessible to non-European countries, the Council of Europe’s treaty covers AI applications for both public and private sectors, with several compliance models for regulating private entities. EU law specifically targets high-risk AI applications.
The Secretary-General of the Council of Europe, Marija Pejcinovic Buric, showed her hope for this treaty’s global influence when she uttered, “The Framework Convention is an open treaty with a potentially global reach.”
These are hopefully just the first of many, and they will be rapidly followed by ratifications so that this treaty can enter into force as soon as possible.” She underlined that the rise of AI should bolster, not undermine, existing standards as countries such as the US, EU, UK, and Israel join this milestone agreement.
