The E.U.’s bill takes a “risk-based” approach to regulating A.I., focusing on applications with the greatest potential for human harm. This would include where A.I. systems are used to operate critical infrastructure like water or energy, in the legal system, and when determining access to public services and government benefits. Makers of the technology will have to conduct risk assessments before putting the tech into everyday use, akin to the drug approval process.

One major area of debate is the use of facial recognition. The European Parliament voted to ban uses of live facial recognition, but questions remain about whether exemptions should be allowed for national security and other law enforcement purposes.

Another provision would ban companies from scraping biometric data from social media to build out databases, a practice that drew scrutiny after it was used by the facial-recognition company Clearview AI.

Tech leaders have been trying influence the debate. Sam Altman, the chief executive of OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, has in recent months visited with at least 100 American lawmakers and other global policymakers in South America, Europe, Africa and Asia, including Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission. Mr. Altman has called for regulation of A.I., but has also said the E.U.’s proposal may be prohibitively difficult to comply with.

After the vote on Wednesday, a final version of the law will be negotiated between representatives of the three branches of the European Union — the European Parliament, European Commission and the Council of the European Union. Officials said they hope to reach a final agreement by the end of the year.