European Union lawmakers on Wednesday took a key step toward setting unprecedented restrictions on how companies use artificial intelligence, putting Brussels on a collision course with American tech giants funneling billions into the technology.
The European Parliament adopted its position on legislation known as the E.U. AI Act, which would ban systems that present an "unacceptable level of risk," such as predictive policing tools, or social scoring systems, like those used in China to classify people based on their behavior and socioeconomic status. The legislation also sets new limits on "high-risk AI," like systems that could influence voters in elections or introduce harms to people's health.