STRASBOURG (dpa-AFX) - The EU Parliament has given the green light for stricter rules on artificial intelligence (AI) in the European Union. The majority of parliamentarians voted in favor of the law in Strasbourg on Wednesday. According to the Parliament, this is the world's first AI law. According to the law, AI systems are to be divided into different risk groups in future. The higher the potential risks of an application, the higher the requirements should be.

Artificial intelligence usually refers to applications based on machine learning, in which software searches through large amounts of data for matches and draws conclusions from them. They are already being used in many areas. For example, such programs can evaluate computer tomography images faster and with greater accuracy than humans.

Self-driving cars also try to predict the behavior of other road users in this way. And chatbots or automatic playlists from streaming services also work with AI.

The upcoming law is based on a proposal by the EU Commission from 2021. Systems that are considered particularly high-risk and are used in critical infrastructures or in the education and healthcare sectors, for example, must therefore meet strict requirements. Certain AI applications that violate EU values are to be banned altogether. This includes, for example, the evaluation of social behavior ("social scoring"). This is used to classify citizens in China into behavioral categories. Emotion recognition in the workplace and in educational institutions is also to be banned in the EU.

Facial recognition in public spaces - for example through video surveillance in public places - should also not be permitted in principle. However, there are exceptions: Police and other security authorities should be allowed to use such facial recognition in public spaces to prosecute very specific crimes such as human trafficking or terrorism.

With the approval of Parliament, the regulations can now come into force. Negotiators from the European Parliament and EU countries had previously reached an agreement on regulation in December after lengthy negotiations. At the beginning of February, representatives of the EU member states also formally approved the proposal.

For the member states, this now means that they will initially have to gradually decommission banned systems. After two years, all points of the law should be fully implemented.

For example, the member states must decide on sanctions if companies do not comply with the regulations. These could be fines. Private individuals who discover breaches of the regulations can complain to national authorities. These can then initiate monitoring procedures and impose penalties if necessary./svv/DP/mis