European Parliament Moves to Ban Biometric Surveillance in Landmark AI Act
European lawmakers take a major step toward passing the world's first comprehensive artificial intelligence regulations by approving a draft mandate that bans intrusive practices like biometric surveillance and emotion recognition.
European Parliament committees officially adopt a draft negotiating mandate for the world's first comprehensive Artificial Intelligence rules. The Internal Market Committee and the Civil Liberties Committee approve the updated proposal with an overwhelming majority, aiming to establish strict transparency and risk-management requirements. Lawmakers design a technology-neutral definition of AI to ensure these regulations remain effective for both current systems and future innovations.
The legislation relies on a risk-based approach that completely bans AI systems posing an unacceptable threat to public safety. Members of the European Parliament expand the prohibited list to include real-time remote biometric identification in public spaces, predictive policing algorithms, and emotion recognition tools used in law enforcement or education. The new rules also block social scoring practices and the indiscriminate scraping of biometric data from social media or surveillance cameras.
In addition to the bans, the updated mandate introduces tailor-made regulatory regimes for general-purpose AI and foundation models similar to GPT. The framework guarantees citizens the right to file complaints about AI systems while requiring that all AI technology remains safe, traceable, non-discriminatory, and environmentally friendly. Human oversight remains a central priority as the draft moves forward to final negotiations.