German lawmakers are set to approve the European Union’s recently introduced laws to regulate artificial intelligence (AI).

The EU revealed the so-called AI Act in December, with the proposed law establishing a regulatory framework for the development of the tech. This Act however requires the approval of members and the European Parliament.

While there had been internal deliberation over the country’s position, Germany will approve the proposal after reaching a compromise with the EU.

Volker Wissing, the German digital minister and member of the liberal Free Democratic Party, said: "Without the use of artificial intelligence, there will be no competitiveness in the future. The wrangling over the German position on the AI Act came to an end today with an acceptable compromise.”

The German minister said that he had campaigned for more innovation-friendly rules and that the country’s negotiations with the EU had achieved improvements for small and medium-sized businesses to avoid disproportionate requirements.

AI regulation has increasingly been in the spotlight, with Italy’s Data Protection Authority Garante this week ruling that Microsoft-backed OpenAI had broken EU data protection rules with its popular application ChatGPT.

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