THE European Parliament, one of the legislative bodies of the European Union, on Wednesday approved the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Act at a session in Strasbourg, France.
With an overwhelming majority of votes, the parliament passed the act with 523 lawmakers voting in favor, 46 against, and 49 abstentions.
The AI Act was approved 5 years after regulations were first proposed.
But the regulation is still subject to a final lawyer-linguist check and is expected to be finally adopted before the end of the legislature through the so-called corrigendum procedure.
The law also needs to be formally endorsed by the Council.
The regulation will enter into force 20 days after it is published in the Official Journal, and it will be fully enforceable 24 months after it becomes effective.
However, specific timelines have been set for different aspects: bans on prohibited practices will be enforced six months after enactment, codes of practice will come into effect nine months after enactment, general-purpose AI rules, including governance, will be implemented 12 months after enactment, and obligations for high-risk systems will be enforced 36 months after enactment.
EU’s rules take a risk-based approach, meaning that stricter requirements are imposed on systems deemed riskier, including outright bans on AI tools considered highly threatening.
For instance, providers of high-risk AI are required to conduct risk assessments and ensure compliance with the law before their products are released to the public.
Companies found in violation could face fines ranging from 7.5 million to 35 million euros, depending on the nature of the infringement and the size of the firms.
