France Digitale’s position on the Digital Omnibus on AI

France Digitale considers that the Omnibus proposal on the AI Act is generally beneficial to startups and scaleups in Europe. The position below underlines what needs to be preserved during the trilogues and what requires clarification to concretely enable innovation in the EU.  

 

SMEs, small mid-caps and innovation 

• France Digitale supports the consideration for Small mid-caps in the text, through the facilitation of their transparency requirements(1) and a better understanding of their needs. (2)
• France Digitale welcomes the inclusion of SMEs in these exceptions, and encourages the simplification of transparency obligations for SMEs developing high-risk AI systems (3), as well as better access to regulatory sandboxes (4) and real life testing (5). 

 

France Digitale recommends that : 

• Access to sandboxes be broadened to explicitly include startups, scaleups and innovative companies, with free access and a precedence. 
• Decisions related to the implementation of these sandboxes must not be fully delegated to Member states, in order to avoid fragmentation of regulatory regimes. France Digitale believes in the benefits of creating European level sandboxes to ensure their effective uptake. 

 

Bias detection and personal data 

• France Digitale considers the extension of the legal basis enabling the usage of particular sets of personal data for bias detection to be beneficial. (6)

 

France Digitale recommends that : 

• The exception must not be restricted to the extent proposed by the Council of the European Union, as the Commission’s proposal already provides effective safeguards against misuse. Startups require flexibility when assessing whether their systems are bias free. Rigid legal provisions will prevent them from effectively carrying out such corrections. 

 

Entry into force and application of the AI Act

• France Digitale supports fixed dates of entry into force, as they would provide legal certainty, coherence and clear projections for companies. It therefore opposes the Commission’s proposal to implement a mechanism relying on the publication of adequate measures. Fixed dates of entry into force should be preceded by the awaited guidelines from the Commission, to be published as soon as possible, and ideally at least 6 months before the entry into force of the obligations for companies to be able to comply with them

 

France Digitale recommends that : 

• The obligations for high-risk systems (Annex III) enter into force on 2 December 2027.
• The obligations for high-risk systems (Annex I) enter into force on 2 August 2028.

 

General alignment

• France Digitale welcomes the prohibition of AI systems capable of generating, manipulating or reproducing realistic image of identifiable natural persons’ intimate parts, or depicting them engaged in sexually explicit activities without their consent or to generate child sexual abuse. (7)
• France Digitale supports the removal of registration obligations for certain high risk AI systems (8) and the simplification of the conformity procedure of notifying authorities. (9)
• France Digitale welcomes the removal of providers and deployers’ obligations to develop AI literacy, endorsed by Member States and the Commission. (10)

 

(1) Art 1(8) Digital Omnibus modifying art 11(2) AIA

(2) Art 1(9) Digital Omnibus modifying  art 17(2) AIA, Art 1(23) Digital Omnibus modifying art 70(8) AIA, Art 1(27) Digital Omnibus modifying art 95(4) AIA, Art 1(28) Digital Omnibus modifying art 96(1) AIA, Art 1(29) Digital Omnibus modifying art 99(1) AIA

(3) Art 1(21) Digital Omnibus modifying art 63 (1) AIA

(4) Art 1(17) Digital Omnibus modifying art 57(1) AIA

(5) Art 1(19)(b) Digital Omnibus modifying art 60(2) AIA

(6) Art 1(5) Digital Omnibus adding art 4bis to AIA

(7) Art 5a of the EU Council mandate amending art 5 Digital Omnibus

(8) Art 1(6) Digital Omnibus modifying art 6(4)(4) AIA

(9) Art 1(10) Digital Omnibus modifying art 28 AIA

(10) Art 1(4) Digital Omnibus modifying art 4 AIA

 

Any questions?

Contact us: ap@francedigitale.org