EU chief Ursula von der Leyen hails AI Act as ‘global first’ that will safeguard rights of people and businesses, Paralel.Az reports citing Al Jazeera.

European Union policymakers have agreed on landmark legislation to regulate artificial intelligence (AI), paving the way for the most ambitious set of standards yet to control the use of the game-changing technology.

The agreement to support the “AI Act” on Friday came after nearly 38 hours of negotiations between lawmakers and policymakers.

The legislation bans indiscriminate scraping of images from the internet or security footage to create facial recognition databases, but includes exemptions for the use of “real-time” facial recognition by law enforcement to investigate terrorism and serious crimes.

The EU law is seen as the most comprehensive effort yet to regulate AI amid a growing patchwork of guidelines and regulations globally.