[thu2111]

Pointing out what you see as bad regulation, doesn’t imply that all regulation is inherently bad, or that less regulation is inherently good.

Well, this is a post about Bayesian inference, so technically pointing out bad regulation should cause people to update their beliefs by adjusting the prior probability that any new piece of regulation will be bad. Assuming people reason based on experience of course, which is reasonable.

What we have here is an unclear and highly controversial problem that many people would argue doesn't even exist at all (I don't see anyone in my own life who has been harmed by AI for example), a very vague and poorly worded regulation, which nonetheless has massive fines attached to it. That makes it pretty much a textbook example of bad regulation. And unfortunately this is the latest in a series of such anti-technology regulations from the EU, which doesn't seem to be learning how to write higher quality regulation or how to judge proportionality.

[reom_tobit]

The EU as a bloc will presumably have a less dynamic AI sector as a result I suppose. I’m fine with that personally, but perhaps I’m a bit of a luddite on this issue. I just believe we should cast a very close watch on any algorithm that could make decisions about citizens. If anything, the current laws do not go far enough in my opinion, but that’s another conversation entirely.

[thu2111]

It just means that the status-quo will be re-inforced: everyone uses AI, and it's American or Chinese AI. These kinds of laws don't actually change consumer behavior, because they don't reflect anyone's real concerns outside of Guardian op-ed pages and maybe HN. They just allow EU Commissioners to posture and try to spin weakness as a moral virtue, resulting in the EU falling ever further behind.

[reom_tobit]

Then I suppose the EU will be punished for this in the global markets. I’m not interested in reading grand motives into these things. It’s easily done the other way around, and doesn’t add much to a discussion.

The man on the clapham omnibus might not care about these laws, but if that was the standard for every bit of legislation, we’d have a very different set of laws in our respective nations.