STORY: European Union lawmakers agreed on watered down landmark artificial intelligence rules on Thursday.
Although the move led critics to argue Europe caved in to Big Tech.
However, one lawmaker argued the AI Act supports European companies by lowering recurring administrative costs.
The AI Act first entered into force in August 2024, with key elements enforced in stages.
Changes to the Act are part of the European Commission's push to simplify a range of new digital rules.
It also comes after businesses complained about overlapping regulation and red tape.
They believe it hurts their ability to compete with U.S. and Asian rivals.
EU governments and lawmakers agreed to delay rules on high-risk AI systems to December next year.
Those systems include biometrics or anything related to critical infrastructure and law enforcement.
Lawmakers also agreed to exclude machinery from the AI Act as it's already subject to sectoral rules.
There was also agreement on a ban on AI practices which create unauthorized sexually explicit images.
That's in response to such content generated by Elon Musk's xAI chatbot Grok on X earlier this year.
The ban is due to apply from December 2.
Mandatory watermarking of AI generated output will also apply from the same date.
The rules are still seen as the strictest in the world even after the changes.
The agreement still needs to be formally endorsed by EU governments and the European Parliament in the coming months.
