The European Union's flagship artificial intelligence regulation took a major step toward becoming law on Wednesday, after lawmakers voted to approve the text of the law that would ban real-time facial recognition, and place new transparency requirements on generative AI tools like ChatGPT. AI Act--will now progress to the final "trilogue" stage of the E.U.'s regulatory process. There, officials will attempt to reach a compromise between the draft of the law just approved by the E.U. Parliament, a different version preferred by the bloc's executive branch, and the desires of member states. That process will begin on Wednesday night and must be completed by January if the law is to come into force before E.U. elections next year.