Forget ChatGPT: Facial recognition emerges as AI rulebook’s make-or-break issue

The battle brewing over artificial intelligence in Brussels is about facial recognition.

On Wednesday, the European Parliament's plenary passed its version of the Artificial Intelligence Act after two years of wrangling. The text — backed by a coalition of Socialists and Democrats, center-right Christian Democrats of the EPP, liberals from Renew, and Greens — passed by a large margin, with 499 lawmakers giving it their final approval, 28 voting against and 93 abstaining. Yet until the very end, one issue threatened to scupper the deal: The Parliament's text, as presented, would ban facial recognition.

The Parliament wants to crack down on the use of facial recognition in public places, an area considered one of artificial intelligence's riskiest uses.