While the bans enter into force this Sunday, governments still have until August to nominate the authorities that will enforce them.
The AI Act is a world-first in setting rules for how the new technology can be used. The European Commission’s tech boss Henna Virkkunen lauded the bill last year as one that will “protect our citizens” while also being an “enabler for innovation.” Creating safeguards for the nascent technology is viewed as essential to enable widespread use. Other parts of the law will be rolled out gradually over the next year and a half.
The rules set the EU apart from other parts of the world where there are few similar rules to govern the technology, underlining its position at the regulatory vanguard. U.S. President Donald Trump took the opposite tack by ripping up an executive order on AI safety from his predecessor, President Joe Biden.
Brando Benifei, an Italian lawmaker who helped to negotiate the rules, said the bans aim to avoid that AI could be used for “societal control” or the “compression of our freedoms.”
“The bans are very much concentrated on one area of concern, which is linked to the protection of our democracies,” he said.
Enforcing them could be messy. European police and migration authorities are also using several AI practices, like real-time facial recognition in public spaces, and were able to secure long lists of exemptions in the rulebook to continue doing so.
