The US government is lobbying Council of Europe members to weaken an international treaty on human rights and AI software by exempting private vendors from compliance.
Diplomats are meeting in Strasbourg, France, this week to create a final version of the treaty, which would require organizations using AI to respect human rights and adhere to democratic principles. But the US, a non-voting observer of the Council of Europe, appears to be close in its efforts to water down the treaty, Politico reported.
The US, with backing from the UK, a member state, and fellow observer states Canada and Japan, is seeking to exempt private companies from the latest draft of the treaty and have it focus only on government uses of AI. Other negotiators and critics of this plan fear this carve-out would limit the effectiveness of the treaty.