European Parliament Approves Landmark AI Regulations With Strict Bans
European lawmakers adopt a negotiating position to establish the world's first comprehensive AI rules, banning biometric surveillance and social scoring while heavily regulating generative AI.
European Parliament members adopt a negotiating position on the Artificial Intelligence Act with 499 votes in favor, paving the way for the first-ever comprehensive AI regulations. The proposed rules aim to ensure that AI developed and used in Europe aligns with fundamental rights, safety, privacy, and democratic values by following a strict risk-based approach.
The legislation includes a full ban on AI systems that pose an unacceptable level of risk to public safety and human rights. Prohibited practices include social scoring, real-time remote biometric identification in public spaces, predictive policing, and emotion recognition in law enforcement or educational settings. Lawmakers also ban the untargeted scraping of facial images from the internet to create recognition databases.
Additionally, the rules classify AI systems used to influence voters in elections as high-risk and impose specific transparency obligations on generative AI tools like ChatGPT. These generative systems must explicitly disclose that their content is AI-generated. The Parliament now prepares to enter negotiations with EU member states to finalize the exact shape of the landmark law.