The European Union’s landmark AI Act has come into force amid efforts by regional governments to phase out the fax machine.
Eurocrats celebrated the official August 1 implementation of the act on social media, claiming that the impact of the legislation will be felt worldwide once its first clauses become enforceable in three months.
Writing on X, Brussels’ self-styled “digital enforcer” Thierry Breton celebrated the launch of the act, describing the EU as a “pioneer” for implementing the bill.
EU knows what's really importent pic.twitter.com/IOAC0Mil0o
— Björn ??? (@BCsickel) August 1, 2024
Others were in less celebratory mood, instead comparing the decision to regulate the industry to the time it decided to ban plastic bottles from having easily removable lids.
“I am sure, every AI entrepreneur will be happy to explain [to] a German EU bureaucrat — who literally does not know how email works — how their AI fulfils the regulation,” one user wrote in response to the Breton’s comments
“First question: Do you ship your ‘AI’ on CD, Floppy or DVD?”
The implementation of the rules came as large swathes of the EU have struggled to phase out the fax machine, which has been in use in one form or another since the mid 1960s.
Regional governments in Germany have had particular difficulties letting go of the technology.
As the EU launched its AI regulation, the Bavarian Government announced it was making significant progress in its quest to become the first State in Germany to purge the use of fax machines for administrative work.
“[We have] sent half of the digital fax dinosaurs to the museum,” the region’s digital minister Fabian Mehring said on August 1.
He added that the shift would help “speed up administrative processes, reduce bureaucracy and enable the use of artificial intelligence”.
The European Union is almost 100 years off hitting its 2030 AI goals, a report published by the European Commission has determined. https://t.co/sZca1WZJfe
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) July 4, 2024
