LAUSR

Some European legislation on artificial intelligence (AI) had been expected at least since 16 July 2019. On that date, Ursula von der Leyen had pledged that, within 100 days of her election as President of the European Commission, she would have proposed new legislation on AI.1 At that time, I remarked that it was a reasonable strategy but an unrealistic timeline. The High-Level Expert Group on AI (HLEG, of which I was a member),2 organised by the European Commission, had only recently published its Ethics Guidelines for Trustworthy AI (HLEGAI, 2019) and its Policy and Investment Recommendations for Trustworthy AI (HLEGAI, 2019). It seemed evident that the next step would have been the translation of those guidelines and recommendations into a legal framework (Floridi, 2019a). However, the work carried out by the HLEG had also shown that the road ahead was going to be long and laborious. I figured it would have taken at least a year, not three months. I was optimistic. On 19 February 2020, the Commission published the White Paper on AI—A European Approach to Excellence and Trust (European Commission, 2020). The document outlined a risk-based approach to AI and policies to promote the uptake of such technology. But, meanwhile, the COVID-19 pandemic had begun to spread, with its deadly effects and immense disruptions.3 Despite this, on 21 April, 2021, the European Commission published the proposal of the new EU Artificial Intelligence Act (henceforth AIA), or, to use its full name, the Proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and the Council laying down harmonised rules on Artificial Intelligence (Artificial Intelligence Act) and amending certain Union legislative acts (Artificial Intelligence Act 21, 2021). According to the European Data Protection Supervisor website, the AIA is “the first initiative, worldwide, that provides a legal framework for Artificial Intelligence