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Grįžti

Ministry of Economy and Innovation of the Republic of Lithuania

National artificial intelligence (AI) governance: a cohesive model of supervision and innovation advancement for Lithuania

5 March 2024 - 6 September 2024

Problem

European context 

The EU Artificial Intelligence Act (the Act) aims to regulate and govern the rapidly evolving AI technologies within the EU and beyond. It acknowledges the significant opportunities AI offers across various sectors but also addresses growing concerns regarding unregulated AI’s potential risks to fundamental rights and freedoms (Publyon, 2024). 

The Act, which will come into force in May, 2024, unifies AI regulation across the 27 EU Member States and applies to all AI systems impacting people in the EU, irrespective of their development or deployment location. A well-known example of that would be the ChatGPT model produced by OpenAI. Compliance obligations for these systems are determined by the level of risk the AI system poses, with a focus on safety, security, and fundamental rights (EY, 2024). 

Key features include a tiered compliance framework targeting prohibited, high-risk AI systems, and those posing systemic risks, with enforcement starting from late 2024/early 2025 and extending to nearly all AI systems by mid-2027. Significant financial penalties are in place for noncompliance (EY, 2024). 

The Act aims to achieve four main objectives (EY, 2024): 

  • Ensuring AI systems placed on the EU market are safe and respect fundamental rights. 
  • Providing legal certainty to foster investment and innovation in AI. 
  • Enhancing governance and enforcement of EU law on fundamental rights and safety requirements for AI systems. 
  • Facilitating the development of a single market for lawful, safe, and trustworthy AI applications, thereby preventing market fragmentation. 

Lithuania’s challenge

As some of these responsibilities are to be ensured by the EU Member States, and Lithuania’s breakthrough in the field of AI is seen as essential for a prosperous future, Lithuania faces a twofold problem: 

  • First, under the EU’s AI Act, Member States must guarantee the supervision of businesses’ compliance with this regulation by setting up or designating at least one market surveillance authority and at least one notifying authority. The respective responsibilities of these authorities are currently not yet assigned. The assignment of functions and inter-institutional and inter-sectoral cooperation needs to be efficient at the governmental level and intuitive for businesses to perform their conformity assessment and business activities in Lithuania. 
  • Second, in the public domain, one often hears that Lithuania is aiming for a breakthrough in the AI field, but experts often note that we do not have the capacity to invest in all areas of AI and that we should focus on prioritized solutions. However, the current governmental model for catalyzing an AI breakthrough is different: the promotion of AI innovation is fragmented, there is no institutionalized model for national priorities in AI, and the cooperation between different sectors and different public institutions is not vertically embedded. 

Goal

The aim of the project is to prepare a comprehensive regulatory and innovation promotion model for AI which would facilitate the implementation of the provisions of the EU AI regulation and leverage the opportunities it brings to ensure breakthroughs in the field of AI in Lithuania. 

Project progress

2024/04/12

Recommendations on the regulatory framework

2024/04/18

AI Governance Forum 1. Publicizing the Forum

2024/05/07

Meeting of EU’s Competent Authorities on AI Working Group in Nicosia

2024/05/20

Analysis of the current situation

2024/05/21

AI Governance Forum 2. Issues and opportunities

2024/06/03

Submission of Ideas for General-Purpose AI Supervision TSI

2024/06/10

Research on foreign approaches (Best practices and strategic gaps)

2024/06/19

AI Governance Forum 3. Approval of solutions

2024/07/31

AI Governance (regulation and innovation support) Model – Version for Forum review

2024/08/20

AI Governance (regulation and innovation support) Model – Final version

2024/08/31

AI Governance Forum 5. Model implementation and continuity assurance

2024/09/02

Legal consolidation of the AI Governance Model

2024/09/09

Submission of draft TSI Request to LT Gov. Office

2024/09/30

Meeting of EU’s Competent Authorities on AI Working Group in Vilnius

Project files

Result

Participants

2023/24
Benediktas Girdvainis
Benediktas Girdvainis

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