Eropean Union member states and lawmakers clinched a deal on Friday on how to draft "historic" rules regulating artificial intelligence models such as ChatGPT — after 36 hours of negotiations.

"Historic! With the political deal on the AI Act sealed today, the EU becomes the first continent to set clear rules for the use of AI," declared the EU's internal market commissioner, Thierry Breton after the meeting of negotiators in Brussels.

"The AI Act is much more than a rulebook — it's a launchpad for EU startups and researchers to lead the global race for trustworthy AI," he added.

The "AI Act" has been rushed through the UN's legislative process this year after the chatbot ChatGPT, a mass-market gateway to generative AI, exploded onto the scene late 2022.

Although ChatGPT's ability to create articulate essays and poems was a dizzying display of AI's rapid advances, critics worry about how the technology can be misused.

Generative AI software, which also includes Google's chatbot Bard, can quickly produce text, images and audio from simple commands in everyday language.

Other examples of generative AI include Dall-E, Midjourney and Stable Diffusion, which can create images in nearly any style on demand.

Negotiators initially failed to agree after marathon talks that began on Wednesday lasted 22 hours and ended with only a deal to resume talks the next day.

Exhausted negotiators then restarted talks at 0800 GMT on Friday.

There had been no real deadline but senior EU figures were desperate to secure a deal before the end of the year.

The European Commission, the EU's executive arm, first proposed the law in 2021 to regulate AI systems based on risk assessments of the software models.

The higher the risk to individuals' rights or health, for example, the greater the systems' obligations.

The law will still need to be formally approved by member states and the parliament, but Friday's political agreement was seen as the last serious hurdle.

"The AI Act is a global first. A unique legal framework for the development of AI you can trust," EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said in a social media post, welcoming the deal.

"And for the safety and fundamental rights of people and businesses. A commitment we took in our political guidelines — and we delivered. I welcome today's political agreement."

The EU is not alone in its worries over AI.

US President Joe Biden issued an executive order on AI safety standards in October and, while Europe is on track for the first broad law covering the sector, Chinese legislation specifically regulating generative AI came into force in August this year.            

WITH AFP