Overview

• The European Union's AI Act, the world's first comprehensive AI regulations, is facing a crucial moment as negotiators attempt to finalize the details.
• The process has been complicated by the rise of generative AI that produces human-like work, leading to a battle over how to govern systems that underpin general purpose AI services.
• Big tech companies are lobbying against what they see as overregulation, while European lawmakers want added safeguards for the cutting-edge AI systems those companies are developing.
• The EU's three largest economies, France, Germany and Italy, have pushed back with a position paper advocating for self-regulation, seen as a move to help homegrown generative AI players.
• If the legislation is not agreed upon before the European Parliament elections next year, it could be put on hold until later in the year, after new EU leaders take office.