EU tech legislation is comical at this point. A bunch of rules that almost nobody follows and at best they fine FAANG companies a few hours of revenue.
That is evidently false? The EU got Apple to switch to USB-C, Google to open up Android's web search, Facebook to stop processing EU customers' data in the US, etc. Whenever I'm in the US and sign up for a service, I immediately get hit with weekly spam mail and "newsletters". And the only consistent way to terminate my account easily and completely delete my PII is by using an EU VPN.
Theres some reasonably sensible stuff here. I am strongly in favor of stuff like banning ai-based profiling of people by law enforcement, prediction of criminal offences and social scoring systems.
Tech companies are not the first concern of civilization at least not insofar as I don't know of any philosophical strain establishing them as kings and overlords.
We can speak past each other cryptically if you prefer that but I don't think that is constructive. I believe that necessary protections generally already exist through existing legislation and the AI part doesn't need to be specified, but I'm open to changing my mind with new information. Just like cookie banners won't stop the CCP from slurping up TikTok comms, I don't see how this legislation will stop adversaries from weaponizing AI. The definition of AI is going to be vague enough to cause significant hurdles for companies looking to operate in the EU, which is already struggling to keep up with the US economy.
EU legislators are totally detached from reality, it can be seen that they do not understand what is the matter with AI, for them it is just "another IT tool" that can be "regulated".
As always: US innovates, EU regulates.
The benefit of these innovation generally don't accrue at all to the bottom half and minimally to the next quartile. As someone not in the top quartile I would given the chance much prefer to be an EU citizen both in general and in respect to this regulation.