The institutions of the European Union agreed this Friday the law of artificial intelligence that allows or prohibits the use of technology based on risk what it means for people and that seeks to boost European industry against giants such as China and the United States.

The agreement came after 36 hours of negotiations and it will still have to be ratified by the European Parliament and the Council of the EU, the institution that represents European governments. “Agreement!”, the Commissioner for Industry and Digital Services, the French liberal Thierry Breton, has written on social networks, along with a graph to highlight that the European Union is the only region in the world with a regulation.

Later, in another message on X he celebrated “the EU becomes the first continent to establish clear rules for the use of AI.” The commissioner has assured this law will allow “the launch so that new companies and EU researchers lead global AI race“: “The best is yet to come”.

The negotiators of the European Parliament and the Council began on Wednesday what was called to be the last round of negotiation for an agreement that finally did not arrive until late Friday, after overcoming the last obstacles regarding biometric surveillance and its use by security forces.

Another key has been how to introduce specific rules for foundational models, such as the ChatGPT or DALL-E platforms, which came to light after the European Commission presented its first proposed regulation so this chapter has been developed in the course of the negotiation.

The objective of the new European regulation is to establish security standards and fundamental rights that prevent technology from being used for repressive, manipulative or discriminatory purposes; but without it translating into hyperregulation that hinders the competitiveness of the European Union.