The European Union (EU) has launched the world's first comprehensive legislative package to regulate AI. The Artificial Intelligence Act (AIA), which is currently progressing through the EU legislative process, will establish a risk-based framework for regulating use of AI anywhere within the EU, including by companies based outside the EU. A limited number of unacceptable AI use cases, such as social profiling by governments, would be completely banned; high-risk use cases would be subjected to prior conformity assessment and wide-ranging new compliance obligations; medium risk functions are subject to enhanced transparency rules, and low-risk use cases can largely be pursued without any new obligations under the AIA. By legislating now, the EU hopes to establish a de facto global standard for AI. The EU is certainly well ahead of the US in this area, with debate in the US more focused on the extent to which the US may be falling behind China in military applications of AI, although some think tanks are looking at the ethics of AI and new state privacy laws have tasked regulators to develop standards for transparency and choice.