EU AI Act: First Major AI Regulation
What Happened
The European Parliament approved the AI Act, the world's first comprehensive AI regulation. It established a risk-based framework: banning 'unacceptable risk' AI (social scoring, indiscriminate surveillance), heavily regulating 'high risk' applications, and requiring transparency for generative AI.
Why It Mattered
Set the global template for AI regulation. Forced every major AI company to consider compliance. Triggered regulatory activity worldwide and established the precedent that AI can and should be regulated.
Organizations
Part of the Generative AI Revolution (2022–2024) era · Browse all regulation & policy · View all 2024 milestones