EU seals the deal on landmark AI Act.

The starting gun is now fired for us all to understand the impact.

The EU just sealed the deal on the AI Act, a big set of rules for the tech wizards behind artificial intelligence. They hashed out the details after over 36 hours of non-stop talks between Wednesday and Friday. The aim? To set the stage for the rest of the world on how to handle AI. European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen called it a “global first,” a unique rulebook for AI development that you can trust.

The law covers a lot of ground. No more biometric systems that ID people based on sensitive stuff like sexual orientation or race. And forget about scraping faces from the internet without discrimination. They’re allowing law enforcement to use biometric IDs in public spaces for certain crimes, though. Transparency is also getting a boost, with new requirements for AI models like OpenAI’s GPT-4. Big, powerful models have to follow strict rules to avoid causing havoc.

If companies don’t play by the rules, they could be hit with fines up to 7% of their global turnover. The bans on certain AI practices kick in after six months, transparency rules take effect in a year, and the full set of rules comes into play in about two years.

But that’s not all. The Act throws in measures to protect copyright from generative AI and makes general purpose AI systems spill the beans on their energy use. European Commissioner Thierry Breton said Europe is taking the lead, becoming the global standard setter.

Now, as the dust settles, the EU is sending a strong message: AI is welcome, but it better play nice and follow the rules. And guess what? The starting gun just went off for everyone to get their act together and comply. It’s a race to the regulatory finish line, folks!