US, UK, EU sign Council of Europe’s International Treaty on Artificial Intelligence – Firstpost

The Council of Europe announced that the US, Israel, the UK and the EU, among others, have signed the International AI Treaty, which was adopted last year. It is different from the EU AI Act, which came into force earlier this month.
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In a significant development on the use of artificial intelligence systems, the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom and other countries signed the Council of Europe International Treaty on AI in Lithuania on Thursday. The Council of Europe, a human rights body based in France, said the agreement was the first international legally binding treaty on the use of AI systems.

The treaty was also signed by Israel, Georgia, Norway, Iceland, Andorra, Moldova and San Marino. Japan, Argentina, Australia, Canada, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay, Costa Rica and the Vatican also participated in the negotiations on the treaty.

The Council of Europe, a body of 47 members including the 27 EU Member States, originally adopted this international treaty on AI in May 2023. Drafted against the backdrop of rapidly evolving AI technology and growing concerns about its misuse, such as deepfakes, the treaty establishes a legal framework regulating the entire lifecycle of AI systems and addressing the risks they may pose, while promoting responsible innovation.

The Council of Europe treaty is different from the EU’s AI Act, which came into force earlier this month. The Council of Europe treaty is open even to non-European members and regulates the use of AI systems in the public and private sectors, with different models for compliance with its principles and obligations when regulating the private sector. EU law regulates the use of AI in high-risk sectors.

“The Framework Convention is an open treaty with potentially global reach. I hope that these will be the first of many signatures and that ratifications will follow soon so that the treaty can enter into force as soon as possible,” Council of Europe Secretary General Marija Pejcinovic Buric said in a statement.

“We must ensure that developments in artificial intelligence uphold our standards, not undermine them,” she said when the US, EU, UK and Israel, among others, joined the treaty.