The European Union Parliament has made a landmark decision in the regulation of the rapidly expanding Artificial Intelligence (AI) industry. On Wednesday, the approval of European Union’s AI regulation – the EU AI Act – was confirmed with a vote of 499 to 28 and 93 Abstentions.
If the law is ratified, it will require AI systems such as ChatGPT be reviewed before they are released to the public. The regulation would also ban real-time biometric identification, predictive policing software, facial recognition software scraped from the internet, and emotion recognition programs.
The EU Parliament’s vote is the first major move towards this by a tier 1 jurisdiction. The US recently met with industry players, and the UK has taken measures as well. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak advocated for AI Safety Regulation Monday.
The adoption of MiCA – the crypto rules set to come into force in 2024 – will follow the EU’s AI Act. This will ensure AI tools are approved and reviewed before they can go public. It will also move to trilogue discussions, where the parliament is expected to defend its position in the negotiations with the European Commission and the EU Council.
