EU parliament approves world’s first artificial intelligence law

Strasbourg, France, Mar 13 (EFE).- The European Parliament endorsed the world’s first comprehensive artificial intelligence law on Wednesday to regulate the rapidly expanding technology across the continent. “I welcome the overwhelming support from the European Parliament for our AI Act, the world’s first comprehensive, binding rules for trusted AI,” the EU’s internal market commissioner, Thierry Breton, said on X, formerly Twitter.

“Europe is now a global standard-setter in trustworthy AI. We are regulating as little as possible, but as much as needed!” the French commissioner and promoter of the initiative said after the parliamentary vote. The EU lawmakers endorsed the act with 523 votes in favor, 46 against, and 49 abstentions. Now, EU member states are expected to approve the set of rules in the coming weeks.

The legislation is anticipated to come into force by 2026, with some provisions applying earlier. The legislation permits or prohibits the use of AI tools based on the level of risk they pose to citizens. With the law, the EU also seeks to set a precedent for other nations and bolster its AI industry against competitors like the United States and China.

The “AI Act” prohibits real-time mass surveillance in public spaces, permitting only law enforcement to use it with prior judicial authorization in cases of certain crimes, prevention of terrorist attacks, and search for people suspected of crimes such as terrorism, human trafficking, and sexual exploitation.

The act imposes obligations on generative artificial intelligence systems, including those utilized by programs like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini (Bard). It requires the developers of generative AI systems to specify whether a text, song, or photograph has been generated through AI and to ensure that the data used to train these systems adheres to EU copyright rules.