EU Parliament passes AI Act, creating the world's first binding AI safety law with risk-tiered requirements

The European Parliament passed the EU Artificial Intelligence Act on March 13, 2024, by a vote of 523 to 46, making it the first comprehensive binding AI safety regulation in the world. The law creates risk tiers: banned AI uses (social scoring, real-time biometric surveillance), high-risk applications (medical devices, critical infrastructure, employment decisions), and general-purpose AI systems like ChatGPT, which face transparency and incident-reporting requirements. The United States had no equivalent federal statute; Congress had held hearings but passed no binding AI legislation.