Europe sets global benchmark with stricter AI laws

EU AI Act to come into force in June

The act becomes law next month, and is considerably more stringent than it's US equivalent.

Next month, Europe's groundbreaking AI regulations will come into effect after EU countries approved a political agreement reached in December. These rules are set to become a global standard for the use of AI in both business and everyday life.

The European Union's AI Act is far more stringent than the United States' more relaxed, voluntary approach and contrasts with China's focus on maintaining social stability and state control.

EU countries voted in favor of the AI Act two months after EU lawmakers approved the legislation, originally proposed by the European Commission in 2021 with several key changes.

Fake news and copyrighted material

The rise in popularity of generative AI systems, such as Microsoft-backed OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's chatbot Gemini, has intensified global concerns about AI's potential to spread misinformation, fake news, and infringe on copyrighted material.

The AI Act places strict transparency requirements on high-risk AI systems, though these will be lighter for general-purpose AI models. It restricts governments' use of real-time biometric surveillance in public spaces to certain crimes, preventing terrorist attacks, and searching for suspects of the most serious crimes.

While the new rules will be fully enforced in 2026, bans on AI use for social scoring, predictive policing, and indiscriminate scraping of facial images from the internet or CCTV footage will begin six months after the regulation takes effect. Obligations for general-purpose AI models will apply after 12 months, and rules for AI systems in regulated products will come into force in 36 months.

Violations of the AI Act could result in fines ranging from €7.5 million (£6.6 million) or 1.5% of turnover to €35 million (£31 million) or 7% of global turnover, depending on the severity of the breach.