Yesterday, the European Parliament Plenary in Strasbourg voted on a regulation aimed at protecting fundamental rights, democracy, the rule of law, and environmental sustainability from the risks posed by Artificial Intelligence, while simultaneously fostering innovation and positioning Europe as a leader in the field.

The landmark regulation for AI usage within the EU garnered significant support, with 523 Members of the European Parliament voting in favor, 46 against, and 49 abstentions.

Under the new rules, AI applications deemed a threat to citizens' rights are banned. This includes biometric categorization systems that rely on sensitive characteristics and the indiscriminate collection of facial images from the internet or CCTV footage for facial recognition databases.

The regulation tightly restricts the use of biometric identification systems by law enforcement. These are generally prohibited, except in exhaustively specified and narrowly defined situations, such as time-limited and geographically specific cases, provided they receive prior judicial or administrative authorization.

Also prohibited are the use of emotion recognition in workplaces and schools, social scoring, predictive policing based solely on profiling, and AI systems that manipulate human behavior or exploit vulnerabilities. A key feature of this regulation is the empowerment of citizens to file complaints about AI systems and obtain explanations for decisions made by high-risk AI systems impacting their rights.

Furthermore, general-purpose AI systems and their underlying models must adhere to transparency requirements, including EU copyright law compliance and the publication of detailed training content summaries. Artificial or manipulated content, like "deepfakes," must be clearly identified as such.

The regulation also mandates the creation of regulatory sandboxes and real-world testing environments at the national level. These facilities, accessible to SMEs and start-ups, are designed to develop and train innovative AI before market introduction. An AI Office will be established to assist companies in complying with the new rules before they become effective.