Romanian member of the European Parliament spearheading EU’s regulation of AI

Dragoș Tudorache, a Romanian member of the European Parliament and part of the liberal Renew family, was recently named one of the most important players in European AI policy by MIT Technology Review.

Tudorache, now a member of the USR splinter REPER, is a former interior minister. He has made a name for himself in Brussels as part of the effort to regulate the burgeoning field of AI. He is one of the two lead negotiators of the AI Act in the European Parliament. The bill, the first sweeping AI law of its kind in the world, will enter into force this year.

The Technology Review piece notes that Tudorache’s interest in AI started much earlier, in 2015. Nick Bostrom’s book Superintelligence, which explores the implications of AI, made him realize the potential and the dangers of AI, he said. When he was elected to the European Parliament in 2019, he says, he arrived determined to work on AI regulation if the opportunity presented itself.

“Since then, Tudorache has chaired a special committee on AI, and shepherded the AI Act through the European Parliament and into its final form following negotiations with other EU institutions. It’s been a wild ride, with intense negotiations, the rise of ChatGPT, lobbying from tech companies, and flip-flopping by some of Europe’s largest economies. But now, as the AI Act has passed into law, Tudorache’s job on it is done and dusted, and he says he has no regrets,” the article notes.

The new act is set to change the tech industry for the better, Tudorache says. Companies will start to take responsible AI seriously thanks to the legally binding obligations for AI companies to be more transparent about how their models are built.

“The fact that we now have a blueprint for how you put the right boundaries while also leaving room for innovation is something that will serve society,” says Tudorache. It will also serve businesses, he mentions, because it offers a predictable path forward on what you can and cannot do with AI.

Last month, an opinion piece in The Washington Post named Tudorache “the smartest politician on AI” for his work in the field. It went on to argue that US authorities were probably going to copy much of Europe’s approach to AI regulation.

“There’s no imminent risk of Europe becoming the top market for AI tech; the U.S. lead on talent, infrastructure, and capital is too significant. But if regulation is the love language of good governance, Europe is poised to remain a gallant protector of individual rights while moving into a far more seductive era with the world’s AI tech companies. Keep an eye on Dragos Tudorache’s Instagram,” the article concluded.