Late in the evening on Friday 8 December in Brussels was a
historic moment for AI regulation in Europe. After three days of
extensive final debate the EU Parliament, Council and Commission
finally announced provisional agreement on the EU AI Act, the
bloc's landmark legislation regulating development and use of
AI in Europe. It is one of the world's first comprehensive
attempts to regulate the use of AI.
The EU AI Act awaits formal adoption by both Parliament and
Council before it will become EU law.
The legislation has been some time in the making, starting with
the EU Commission's Proposal for a Regulation on AI in 2021.
Following the explosion of interest in AI large language models in
2023, the nature of the regulation has had to evolve rapidly to
keep pace with the technological advancements. Recent delays in the
passing of the legislation have related to debates over whether and
how the Act should regulate AI foundation models, the advanced
generative AI
