EU Council Officially Approves First Global Comprehensive AI Legislation

According to PANews, the European Union Council has officially approved the 'Artificial Intelligence Act', marking the first comprehensive global regulation on Artificial Intelligence (AI). The European Commission proposed the 'Artificial Intelligence Act' in 2021 with the aim of protecting citizens from the potential harm of this emerging technology. After several rounds of negotiations and consultations, the European Parliament approved the Act in March this year. The EU Council and the European Parliament, the two major legislative bodies of the EU, play the roles of the upper and lower houses respectively. The 'Artificial Intelligence Act' of the EU imposes strict transparency obligations on high-risk AI systems, while the requirements for general AI models are lower. With the approval of both legislative bodies, the Act will be published in the EU Official Journal in the coming days after being signed by the Presidents of the European Parliament and the EU Council, and will come into effect 20 days after publication.