Italy has become the first European Union (EU) member state to enact a national law regulating artificial intelligence, bringing its domestic framework into close alignment with the EU’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) Act, according to a report by Reuters. The legislation establishes human-centric, transparent, and safe use of AI as its guiding principles, while also highlighting the importance of innovation, privacy, and cybersecurity.
The scope of the law is broad. It extends across healthcare, workplaces, education, justice, public administration, and even sport, and in each of these domains, it requires AI systems to remain traceable and subject to human oversight.
Key Provisions of the Italian AI Law
The law introduces a wide set of requirements. Children under the age of 14, for instance, cannot access AI services without parental consent. Moreover, all AI decisions must remain under human supervision, and their processes must be fully traceable.
Italy has also defined who will hold regulatory authority: the Agency for Digital Italy and the National Cybersecurity Agency will take the lead, while existing bodies such as the Bank of Italy and Consob will continue to exercise power within their own sectors.
Additionally, the legislation imposes new criminal penalties. Courts can now sentence people to one to five years in prison for unlawfully distributing AI-generated content, particularly harmful deepfakes. Authorities will also impose tougher punishments for crimes such as fraud and identity theft when offenders use AI to carry them out.
Lawmakers have extended copyright protections to works created with the help of AI, provided they reflect intellectual effort. They have also limited text and data mining, allowing it only on non-copyrighted material or for scientific research conducted by authorised institutions.
In healthcare, the law makes doctors responsible for final decisions even when AI assists with diagnosis and treatment. It also requires doctors to inform patients whenever AI plays a role in their care. Employers now face new obligations as well, since they must disclose whenever they deploy AI systems in the workplace.
The government backs these rules with financial support. It has committed up to €1 billion from a state-backed venture capital fund to invest in companies working on AI, cybersecurity, quantum technologies, and telecoms. Critics argue that this sum falls short compared with the resources other countries have mobilised.
Connection to the EU AI Act
Italy’s law does not stand alone but is part of a larger European framework. It follows the EU’s Artificial Intelligence Act, which was passed in March 2024 and regulates AI systems based on risk levels. The EU law bans certain systems outright, including discriminatory social scoring and real-time biometric identification outside narrowly defined contexts. High-risk systems, such as those used in law enforcement, migration, or…
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