The EU AI Regulations has some very broad carve outs added for Law Enforcement, such as real-time facial recognition. And individual EU states still have the authority to carve out exceptions as they wish.
Like every other form of tech regulation done by the EU, it's all bark but no bite because politicians of individual countries have more power than MEPs.
What's to stop Fidesz, PiS (if they return to power), etc from carving out broad exceptions for their own Interior Ministries? They've already done this with spyware like Pegasus.
Instead of techno-feudalism, it's basically techno-paternalism which is essentially the same thing. In both cases, individual agency is being limited by someone else.
In many ways I share your pessimism, but let me challenge you:
> A half assed effort is worse than no effort, because a half assed attempt can easily be weaponized
This part I'm not following. I don't see the EU effort as half-assed so much as just lacking teeth due to realpolitik. That's unfortunate but still a step in the right direction. What would you propose as an alternative? If you're just saying "we're fucked" that's a point of view, but it doesn't explain how the current attempts will be weaponized. All else being equal, I'd argue that having these issues in the global discussion is better than not. If they're not then how do they get addressed?
Like every other form of tech regulation done by the EU, it's all bark but no bite because politicians of individual countries have more power than MEPs.
What's to stop Fidesz, PiS (if they return to power), etc from carving out broad exceptions for their own Interior Ministries? They've already done this with spyware like Pegasus.
Instead of techno-feudalism, it's basically techno-paternalism which is essentially the same thing. In both cases, individual agency is being limited by someone else.