BRUSSELS — Members of the European Parliament, EU member countries represented by the Council, and experts from the European Commission have clinched a political deal on the Artificial Intelligence Act, the EU’s pioneering attempt at regulating the emerging technology.
Following over 36 hours of negotiations over three days, representatives of the bloc’s three institutions have managed to reach an agreement on divisive topics such as predictive policing, facial recognition and the use of AI by law enforcement. It is expected that more technical work on the law’s text will be needed to refine tonight’s political agreement.
“The EU becomes the very first continent to set clear rules for the use of AI,” Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton posted on X. “The [AI Act] is much more than a rulebook — it’s a launchpad for EU startups and researchers to lead the global AI race.”
Lawmaker Dragoș Tudorache, one of the AI Act’s co-rapporteurs in Parliament, wrote, “We are the first in the world to set in place real regulation for [AI], and for the future digital world driven by AI, guiding the development and evolution of this technology in a human-centric direction.”