Why “Artificial Intelligence” Should Not Be Regulated

Lawmakers all over the world have started to draft new regulations for Artificial Intelligence (AI). While the European Union is currently leading the way with its AI Act, many other legislators will follow and already positioned themselves with white papers and other publications. This commentary argues that “Artificial Intelligence”, including Generative AI, should not be used as a regulatory category. Not because there is no potential for harm from AI systems and not because AI systems should not be regulated, but because “Artificial Intelligence” is a vaguely defined label that is neither suitable nor necessary for comprehensive regulation of technological risks. Instead of regulating a particular set of approaches and algorithms, lawmakers should focus and double down on regulating high-risk applications of software, independent of whether it is labelled as AI or not.