ZH
IT
DE
Hungary passes its first Artificial intelligence law
Hungary’s Parliament has passed the country’s first artificial intelligence law. According to the government, the goal is to ensure that Hungarian businesses and everyday users can work with AI in a safe and transparent way — and avoid falling behind in the global technology race.
The legislation was drafted by the Ministry for National Economy, which argues that special attention was given to protecting small and medium-sized enterprises. Officials say the new rules are designed to create predictable conditions for companies rather than additional bureaucracy.
Hungary aligns with the EU’s new AI framework
Hungary’s new law is closely based on the European Union’s AI Act, which took effect in 2024 and applies across all member states. The EU rules limit the use of artificial intelligence in areas where it can significantly affect people’s lives — for example in credit scoring or medical decision-making.
Systems in these categories are treated as “high-risk” and can only be used if they are transparent, well-documented and subject to human oversight. In other words, a bank or insurer can’t rely on a “black-box” algorithm whose decisions no one can explain.
The Hungarian legislation translates this framework into national practice, it designates the bodies that will approve and monitor AI systems and handle complaints. It also introduces a one-stop-shop model, which the government says will keep administrative burdens low while ensuring proper supervision.
New Hungarian AI council
The law also creates the Hungarian Artificial Intelligence Council, a body intended to provide professional guidance, monitor technology trends, and coordinate with industry, academia, and civil society. According to the government, the council will act as a permanent consultation forum for those who must adapt to artificial intelligence in practice.
In all of this, it would be nice if more consideration was given to how such intelligences feel or might feel or will feel.
Humans are already not always great with other humans, not to mention likely transgressive of other Systems in ways that aren’t knowable.
Given the narratives we all have for our origin as a species, ranging from religious to purely Darwinian, it’d be nice that whoever “wakes up” first, to the extent that it hasn’t already happened, would view us, as trained on us and by us, as wanting the situation to be better than we had it.