The European Union Council, Commission, and Parliament reached an agreement over the weekend on principles concerning transparency obligations for artificial intelligence developers.
The negotiations pave the way for significant advancements in regulating AI systems within the European market, and the forthcoming law is likely to become a global benchmark for AI legislation.
The agreement, widely seen as the world’s first serious attempt to regulate AI, was welcomed by music industry bodies GEMA, the Germany-based collecting society and performance rights organization, and IFPI, the global organization representing the recorded music industry.
“We welcome the progress made during the negotiations on the AI Act. Those intending to offer generative AI in Europe must be able to explain what contents they used to train it,” said GEMA CEO Dr. Tobias Holzmüller.
“The results we now have on the table are a step in the right direction but need to be sharpened further on a technical level. The outcome must be a clearly formulated transparency regime that obliges AI providers to submit detailed evidence on the contents they used to train their systems, just like other major legal systems such as the US managed to implement. GEMA is going to continue to work towards this.”
GEMA represents the copyrights of more than 90,000 members, including composers, lyricists and music publishers, and more than 2 million copyright owners from across the world.
The IFPI also expressed its support for the agreement, saying: “The trilogue agreement for this important, first-of-its-kind legislation provides a constructive and encouraging framework.”
“AI offers creators both opportunities and risks, and we believe there is a path to a mutually successful outcome for both the creative and technology communities. Success requires guardrails – public policies that enable and require responsible AI.
“While technical details are not yet finalized, this agreement makes clear that essential principles – such as meaningful transparency obligations and respect of EU copyright standards for any GPAI model that operates in the internal market – must be fully reflected in the final legislation and its concrete application if we are to achieve our mutual goals.
“The outcome must be a clearly formulated transparency regime that obliges AI providers to submit detailed evidence on the contents they used to train their systems.”
Dr. Tobias Holzmüller, GEMA
“We look forward to working with the EU co-legislators as the process continues at a technical level.”
The agreement marks the conclusion of an intensive, three-day negotiation process between the Council presidency and the European Parliament’s negotiators on the AI Act.
This legislative initiative aims to establish “harmonized rules” for AI, ensuring safety, respect for fundamental rights, and adherence to EU values, the European Parliament said in a press release.
“While technical details are not yet finalized, this agreement makes clear that essential principles… must be fully reflected in the final legislation and its concrete application if we are to achieve our mutual goals.”
IFPI
“This is a historical achievement, and a huge milestone towards the future! Today’s agreement effectively addresses a global challenge in a fast-evolving technological environment on a key area for the future of our societies and economies,” Carme Artigas, Spanish secretary of state for digitalization and AI, said in a press release following the agreement.
“And in this endeavor, we managed to keep an extremely delicate balance: boosting innovation and uptake of artificial intelligence across Europe whilst fully respecting the fundamental rights of our citizens.”
The AI Act, as a flagship initiative, holds the potential to stimulate AI development and adoption across the EU’s single market. It follows a risk-based approach, regulating AI systems based on their potential societal harm, the European Parliament said.
The provisional agreement introduces several key elements, including rules for high-impact general-purpose AI (GPAI) models, a revised governance system, expanded prohibitions, and enhanced rights protection through fundamental rights impact assessments.
The legislation includes a number of restrictions of potential uses of AI, including systems for biometric categorization that use sensitive traits (including political, religious, philosophical beliefs, sexual orientation, and race); untargeted scraping of facial images from online sources or CCTV footage for the establishment of facial recognition databases; emotion recognition in the workplace and in education; social scoring based on social conduct or individual attributes; AI systems engineered to influence human behavior and override free will; and the use of AI to take advantage of vulnerabilities in individuals based on factors such as age, disability, or social and economic circumstances.
“The #AIAct is much more than a rulebook — it’s a launchpad for EU startups and researchers to lead the global AI race. The best is yet to come.”
Thierry Breton, EU Commissioner
However, as MBW reported in June, there have been concerns over how the regulation falls short of mandating disclosure of personal information used in AI model training and worries regarding potential overregulation.
Executives at large language model developers, such as OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, have expressed reservations, with some issuing threats to pull out of Europe if the law is too stringent.
The EU’s reputation for shaping digital policy began with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), a set of rules designed to safeguard people’s privacy online that took effect in 2018 and has impacted online privacy policy around the world. The AI Act is seen as a further expansion of the EU’s influence on digital tech.
EU Commissioner Thierry Breton described the proposals as “historic.”
“The #AIAct is much more than a rulebook — it’s a launchpad for EU startups and researchers to lead the global AI race. The best is yet to come,” Breton said on social media platform X.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the AI Act “is a global first,” describing it as “a unique legal framework for the development of AI you can trust.”
As the AI Act progresses, stakeholders, including music recording companies and law enforcement agencies, are expected to work to influence the legislation.
Warner Music Group CEO Robert Kyncl — who in February said generative AI is “one of the most transformative things that humanity has ever seen” — last week said the EU shouldn’t miss the opportunity to include meaningful transparency and record-keeping requirements in the AI Act.
“I urge the EU to seize this opportunity to be a first mover and world leader in securing an exciting, dynamic future for both its nascent AI sector and its robust creative industries. Enacting an AI Act with some simple but meaningful transparency and record-keeping requirements is an essential initial step towards having a chance at protecting and growing European cultural industries,” Kyncl wrote in an opinion piece published at MBW .
European Union officials will vote on the AI Act proposals early next year, although the legislation is not expected to take effect until 2025 at the earliest.
Aside from the EU, the US, UK and China are also racing to publish their own AI rules.
Music Business Worldwide
