Business Matters

This week the EU votes on ways to regulate AI. Vice-President Margrethe Vestager leads the charge against threats posed by artificial intelligence. She tells the BBC that although the threat of human extinction ”probably does exist”, the likelihood is “quite small”. She says initial threats include discrimination, and criminals getting ahead of the police in understanding AI. This week European politicians debate the issue as they vote on the AI Act. It's the first law for AI systems in the West and it largely categorizes the away AI is used into four levels of risk: unacceptable risk, high risk, limited risk and minimal or no risk. If the legislation passes, unacceptable risk applications would banned by default and will not be deployed in European countries. U.S inflation has fallen again – but is it enough to prevent an interest rate rise? Inflation was down to 4% in the US at the end of May – its lowest since 2021. Prices for eggs, petrol and furniture were down, helping to cut inflation to less than half