The European Parliament adopted its negotiating stance on the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Act on Wednesday, which proposes guidelines for the use of AI in Europe with the goal of encouraging responsible use of the technology and protecting people from its potentially detrimental impacts.

The position was adopted with 499 votes in favor, 28 votes against, and 93 abstentions, according to the parliament, which added that the vote occurred ahead of discussions with EU member states on the final version of the law.
 
The parliament said in a statement, "The rules would ensure that AI developed and used in Europe is fully in line with EU rights and values including human oversight, safety, privacy, transparency, non-discrimination, and social and environmental wellbeing ... The rules follow a risk-based approach and establish obligations for providers and those deploying AI systems depending on the level of risk the AI can generate."
 
The laws also recommend prohibiting biometric surveillance, emotion recognition, and predictive policing by AI systems based on profiling or prior criminal behavior. Lifelike content produced by generative AI systems must be designated as such.

The European Parliament stated back in May that its internal market and civil liberties committees had voted in support of taking the draft AI Act to a plenary vote in mid-June.

Earlier this week, two separate bipartisan bills were submitted by US Senators that aim to regulate the use and implementation of artificial intelligence (AI), as the world is set on an irreversible path to integrate the technology into daily human lives.

While China became the first country in the world to introduce several AI regulations to protect consumers and manage the technology's risk, followed by the European Union, the United States has so far refrained from adopting such laws, raising skepticism over its ability to contain AI's threats, most importantly keeping in check American tech giants such as Google, Facebook, and Apple.