On Artificial Intelligence 14 texts, oppositions in the field

Artificial intelligence (AI) is not only the subject of the government's bill, approved last Tuesday in the Cdm, which outlines its scope of action in Italy. Or the recent survey by the Chamber's Productive Activities Commission. In Parliament, since the beginning of the legislature, 14 bills have been filed (3 in the Senate and 11 in the Chamber) that address some of the challenges and nodes related to the development of AI. Four respectively from Pd and Fi, 2 from Fdi and Lega, one from Azione and another from Noi moderati.

These are almost always texts still to be assigned in committee or assigned but not yet examined. The one at the most advanced stage, signed by Lorenzo Basso (PD), began its passage through the Senate committee on 9 April. It starts from the premise that AI will have 'an unprecedented capacity to boost the productivity' of companies. Hence the deployment of 'incentives and tools that can help companies adopt artificial intelligence tools'. These include a fund for the development of AI financed by the Ministry of Enterprise and Made in Italy, 'with an endowment of 300 million for each of the years from 2024 to 2028'. Not only. To promote transparency, it is stipulated that 'all content generated by artificial intelligence must be clearly identified as such and made recognisable to users through labelling (label) and watermarking systems'.

An issue, that of transparency, addressed by the two Fdi bills. Both in the Chamber. One (first signatory Giovanni Luca Cannata) aims to ensure that AI is 'developed and placed on the national market' in compliance with 'ethical principles'. For this reason, the Agency for Digital Italy is entrusted with the task of regulating 'the procedures for issuing quality certification to AI systems'. The other (first signatory Mauro Malaguti) introduces the obligation of 'affixing a mark to images, videos or audio produced by systems' of AI, to counter the phenomenon of the creation of 'false, but extremely realistic images, videos and audio, known as deepfakes, which can be used to carry out scams' or 'question trust in decision-making processes, including political ones'.

Two Dem law proposals are moving in the same direction: both the one signed by Anna Ascani and the text by Senator Antonio Nicita aim at transparency in the publication and dissemination of content produced by means of AI systems, through the 'adoption of unambiguous labelling', according to 'the modalities defined by the Communications Guarantee Authority'. Fi also manifests similar concerns, as evidenced by the proposal filed by Paolo Emilio Russo to 'ensure the recognisability of content produced or modified by means of artificial intelligence systems'. Another Dem bill (first signatory again Ascani) envisages the creation of an 'Artificial Intelligence Agency' whose tasks include carrying out 'training activities for the staff of administrations that manage European or national programmes for the development and promotion of AI technologies'.

The most recent bill (presented in the Senate last Tuesday) is by the Carroccio (first signatory Giorgio Maria Bergesio) and re-proposes a text deposited in the Chamber of Deputies a year ago by the Leghist Giulio Centemero. The aim is to 'define the conditions and modalities' of an 'experimentation' of AI systems for the 'innovation of services and products' in certain priority sectors: from industry to infrastructure. While the bill by Action MP Valentina Grippo focuses on the 'coordination and planning of national policy on artificial intelligence and digital innovation' by entrusting it to an ad hoc 'inter-ministerial committee', 'based on the successful model of the space and aerospace sector'. Finally, two recent proposals by MP Chiara Tenerini (Fi) are worth mentioning. One establishes a 'parliamentary commission for the study, supervision and control of the effects of the spread of artificial intelligence in work and society'. The other introduces 'the teaching of the basics of the processes governing artificial intelligence in primary and secondary school courses'.