The European Council approved on Tuesday the world's first major law for regulating AI, and it may lead to the establishment of a global standard.
Ministers from the 27 European Union member states gathered in Brussels and gave final green light to the so-called "Artificial Intelligence Act."
Mathieu Michel, the Belgian Secretary of State for digitalisation, said Europe has made its choice to create "a framework for the development of safe, human-centered and trustworthy artificial intelligence."
The new regulation will be classified according to its risk. It will ban evaluating or classifying people with social scores or judging how likely someone is to commit crimes. It will also limit the use of biometric identification in public spaces.
The new law also aims to ensure transparency and accountability. Pictures, videos and audio created by AI resembling existing people must be labeled as artificially generated.
Companies that breach the act could face fines of up to 38 million dollars or 7 percent of their annual revenues, whichever is higher. The regulations will be phased in starting in 2026.