Is Italy Reining in The AI Wild West?
Ben Thomson, LawFuel contributor
Italy has just made history. Its parliament passed a sweeping AI law, becoming the first member of the EU to implement comprehensive national regulation that mirrors and, in many respects, outdoes the EU’s AI Act.
Reuters report that the new regime emphasizes human-centred, transparent, and secure AI use—trying (painfully) to balance innovation with citizens’ rights.
Here are the headline features (because yes, you should care):
- Traceability and human oversight are mandatory for AI deployed in sectors such as healthcare, workplaces, education, justice, public administration and sport.
- Users under 14 years old need parental consent to access AI tools.
- Two agencies—Agency for Digital Italy and the National Cybersecurity Agency—are in charge of oversight. Existing regulators such as Bank of Italy and Consob retain their powers within specific domains.
- Criminal liability: Misuse of AI-generated content (deepfakes, etc.) that causes harm could get you 1 to 5 years in prison; identity theft, fraud and similar criminal uses via AI get harsher penalties.
- Copyright protections are refined: AI-assisted works are protected only if there’s genuine human intellectual input. Text & data mining is allowed only for non-copyrighted material or authorised scientific research.
- The law doesn’t just threaten punishments, it also promises investment: €1 billion in a state-backed fund for AI, cybersecurity, quantum tech and telecoms.
What Happens Now?
Italy is signalling that AI won’t be the Wild West for much longer. Where the EU AI Act sets standards, Italy’s law enforces. Where the EU gives broad margins, Italy tightens up specific areas: children’s access, criminal liability, transparency, copyright. For firms building or using AI, this is a glimpse of stricter compliance realities ahead.
Potential downsides: heavier regulatory burden, legal uncertainty over what counts as sufficient “human oversight” or “genuine intellectual effort,” possibly discouraging startups or overseas investment if compliance costs balloon. Some critics already say the €1B fund is skin-deep compared to US and China.
Dr. Kolochenko Weighs In
Dr. Kolochenko, CEO at ImmuniWeb and a Fellow at the European Law Institute (ELI) made comments regarding the Italian move.
“This is a bold and courageous move by Italian lawmakers and government that will likely have a long-lasting impact not only for Italy, but for the global AI industry. The Italian law goes far beyond the comparatively shy and toothless EU AI Act, both in terms of the breadth of regulation of specific AI areas and penalties for non-compliance. Italy confidently sends a clear signal that, while the use of AI is welcome, any malicious, unfair or discriminatory use of AI will have serious legal ramifications.
The Italian law addresses such pivotal things as copyright, which is virtually entirely omitted in the EU AI Act, leaving AI vendors with a huge leeway to exploit copyrighted content without paying its authors. While some experts will likely argue that the new law might undermine the global competitiveness of Italy as a hub for tech companies and startups, many other countries around the globe will likely follow the Italian example pretty soon.
The situation is somewhat similar to the regulation of illicit and criminal behavior on the Internet – in early 90s, most people were openly skeptical about any attempts to regulate criminal conduct on the Internet. However, today, you will unlikely find a single jurisdiction that has no criminal laws regulating such conduct. In sum, AI companies shall rapidly get ready for the epoch of unregaled Wild West in AI comes to its end.”
Italy may sacrifice some perceived flexibility, but it’s staking a claim in defining what “responsible AI” really means. The kind of piece-by-piece regulatory patchwork many feared could happen is happening. But Italy is saying the work must be done now.
