The European Commission’s Proposal for an Artificial Intelligence Act—A Critical Assessment by Members of the Robotics and AI Law Society (RAILS)
Open accessAbstract
On 21 April 2021, the European Commission presented its long-awaited proposal for a Regulation “laying down harmonized rules on Artificial Intelligence”, the so-called “Artificial Intelligence Act” (AIA). This article takes a critical look at the proposed regulation. After an introduction (1), the paper analyzes the unclear preemptive effect of the AIA and EU competences (2), the scope of application (3), the prohibited uses of Artificial Intelligence (AI) (4), the provisions on high-risk AI systems (5), the obligations of providers and users (6), the requirements for AI systems with limited risks (7), the enforcement system (8), the relationship of the AIA with the existing legal framework (9), and the regulatory gaps (10). The last section draws some final conclusions (11).
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The Commission's AIA proposal does not clarify when and how human oversight is required.
“Moreover, the Commission’s AIA proposal does not clarify when and how human oversight is required (Ebers et al. 2021: 596).”
From Institutionalised distrust and human oversight of artificial intelligence: towards a democratic design of AI governance under the European Union AI Act (2024) · cites this paper as Ebers et al. 2021
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Cited by
Sorted by citations
Laux, J. (2024) · AI & SOCIETY · doi:10.1007/s00146-023-01777-z · Cited by 127 · see citing works
“Moreover, the Commission’s AIA proposal does not clarify when and how human oversight is required (Ebers et al. 2021: 596).”
Truly risk-based regulation of Artificial Intelligence: how to implement the EU's AI act
Ebers, M. (2025) · European Journal of Risk Regulation · doi:10.1017/err.2024.78 · Cited by 126 · see citing works
Self-citationGolpayegani, D., Pandit, H. J., & Lewis, D. (2023) · 2023 ACM Conference on Fairness Accountability and Transparency · doi:10.1145/3593013.3594050 · Cited by 42 · see citing works
Enforcement Design Patterns in EU Law: An Analysis of the AI Act
Söderlund, K., & Larsson, S. (2024) · Digital Society · doi:10.1007/s44206-024-00129-8 · Cited by 27 · see citing works
Simbeck, K. (2022) · 2022 ACM Conference on Fairness Accountability and Transparency · doi:10.1145/3531146.3533076 · Cited by 12 · see citing works
- Authors
- Ebers, M., Hoch, V. R. S., Rosenkranz, F., Ruschemeier, H., & Steinrötter, B.
- Affiliations
- Robotics & AI Law Society (DE)
- Ruhr University Bochum (DE)
- Center for Advanced Internet Studies (DE)
- University of Potsdam (DE)
- Corresponding author
- Ebers, Martin
- Venue
- J
- Publisher
- MDPI AG
- Published
- 2021-10-08
- Volume
- 4
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 589-603
- ISSN
- 2571-8800 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W3202196203
- Cited by
- 153
- References
- 3
- Citations by year
- 2026: 25 · 2025: 27 · 2024: 43 · 2023: 37 · 2022: 18 · 2021: 1 · 2019: 1
- FWCI
- 161.28
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- J — Multidisciplinary Scientific Journal (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- publish.UP (University of Potsdam) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Law › Digitalization, Law, and Regulation
- Social Sciences › Safety Research › Ethics and Social Impacts of AI
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Artificial Intelligence › Law, AI, and Intellectual Property
- Keywords
- EU AI Act, high-risk AI systems, EU competences, scope of application, legislative gaps
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