EU lawmakers take further step on AI regulation

BRUSSELS

EU lawmakers on Wednesday adopted their position on the draft EU law regulating artificial intelligence.

The European Parliament announced in a statement that it has “adopted its negotiating position on the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Act with 499 votes in favor, 28 against and 93 abstentions ahead of talks with EU member states on the final shape of the law.”

Once adopted, the EU’s law will be the first one in the world that regulates the use of AI.

The rules will “promote the uptake of human-centric and trustworthy AI and protect the health, safety, fundamental rights and democracy from its harmful effects,” the European Parliament said.

“Europe has gone ahead and proposed a concrete response to the risks AI is starting to pose,” Italian EU lawmaker Brando Benifei, the file’s rapporteur, explained after the vote.

“We want AI’s positive potential for creativity and productivity to be harnessed in a way that counters dangers to our democracies and freedoms,” he added.

The draft requires generative AI systems, such as language processing chatbot ChatGPT, to label that the content was made by AI.

It strictly prohibits systems from using manipulative techniques, social scoring or exploiting people’s vulnerabilities.

By the initiative of EU lawmakers, the proposal bans most forms of biometric surveillance, only granting exceptions for law enforcement and prosecution authorities in certain cases.

It also prohibits targeted scraping of facial images from the internet or CCTV footage to create facial recognition databases.

The now-adopted mandate will guide the European Parliament's representatives during the talks with EU member states and the European Commission.

Once they agree on the final law, the EP will approve it officially. The regulation is expected to enter into force in 2026 at the earliest.