EU LAWMAKERS GET BEHIND AI RULES

European Union lawmakers have moved closer to adopting the world's first artificial-intelligence rules, governing everything from surveillance in public spaces to music-copyright violations.

The AI Act, which will regulate models such as OpenAI, is designed to force companies to comply with specific transparency obligations and EU copyright laws. The vote was 523 in favor, 46 against and 49 abstentions.

“The AI Act has nudged the future of AI in a human-centric direction, in a direction where humans are in control of the technology and where it—the technology—helps us leverage new discoveries, economic growth and societal progress and unlock human potential,” said Romanian lawmaker Dragos Tudorache, a co-leader of the European Parliament negotiations on the draft law, the Associated Press has reported.

Developers of general-purpose AI models will have to provide a detailed summary of the information used to train its systems. Each EU country will have its own AI enforcement agency. Brussels will create an AI Office to enforce and supervise the law.

EU countries will vote on the legislation in May or June. The rules would start to take effect in 2025 and be fully in place in 2026. Fines will range from €7.5m to €35m.