Breaking news. MEPs endorse blanket ban on facial recognition in public spaces, rejecting targeted exemptions

Members of the European Parliament endorsed on Wednesday a blanket ban on AI-powered facial recognition in public places.

With 335 votes in favour and 235 against, lawmakers pushed to move forward with the sweeping prohibition, rejecting an amendment that could have paved the way for targeted exemptions for law enforcement.

The ban is part of a draft piece of legislation, known as the Artificial Intelligence Act, that aims to ensure the development of human-centric, ethically responsible and environmentally sustainable AI systems across Europe.

The regulation, which is considered a world-first attempt to rein in AI's excesses, still needs to be negotiated between the European Parliament and member states in what is known as a trilogue.

The talks are expected to be intense and possibly extend until the end of the year.

The amendment rejected on Wednesday had been submitted by the centre-right European People's Party (EPP) and would have allowed the use of "real-time" biometric identification systems in three different cases: the search for missing persons, the prevention of a terrorist attack and the detection of criminals wanted under a European arrest warrant.

Biometric identification refers to systems powered by artificial intelligence that use biological features, such as facial traits, eye structures and fingerprints, to determine the identity of a person.

The original proposal presented by the European Commission in April 2021 classified the use of real-time biometrics in public spaces as having an unacceptable risk to citizens and therefore strictly banned.

The Commission, however, did include three targeted exemptions for law enforcement, very similar to the EPP's amendments.

But when the file reached the European Parliament, MEPs decided to broaden the list of banned AI systems and did away with the dispensations foreseen for biometrics in public spaces, calling the technology "intrusive and discriminatory."

The only exemption in the compromise text related to the use of biometrics but only after the commission of a crime fact and under judicial authorisation.