Brazil’s PL 2338: the Status of Its AI Bill

巴西 PL 2338：人工智能法案现状

Brazil’s AI bill is described in a great deal of writing as though it were in force. It is not, and the distinction is not pedantic: the risk tiers, the prohibitions and the regulator that summaries attribute to Brazilian law exist only in a text that one chamber of Congress has approved. 许多文章在描述巴西人工智能法案时，仿佛它已经生效。事实并非如此，这种区别并非咬文嚼字：摘要中归因于巴西法律的风险分级、禁令以及监管机构，目前仅存在于国会其中一个议院批准的文本中。

Where the bill stands: PL 2338/2023 was introduced in the Federal Senate in May 2023 by the then-President of the Senate, building on the report of a commission of jurists that had been convened to draft a substitute for earlier and much thinner AI bills. After committee work through 2024, the Senate plenary approved the bill on 10 December 2024 and sent it to the Chamber of Deputies, where it has been examined by a special committee rather than passed straight to a floor vote. As at the date on this page, the bill has not been enacted. It has been approved by one chamber and remains before the other. 法案现状：PL 2338/2023 法案由时任参议院议长于 2023 年 5 月在联邦参议院提出。该法案基于一个法学家委员会的报告，旨在取代此前内容单薄的人工智能法案。经过 2024 年全年的委员会工作，参议院全体会议于 2024 年 12 月 10 日批准了该法案，并将其送交众议院。目前，该法案正由众议院的一个特别委员会进行审查，而非直接进入全院投票。截至本文发布之日，该法案尚未颁布。它仅获得了一个议院的批准，目前仍处于另一个议院的审议阶段。

This is a status page about a live legislative process and it is written to be checked, not relied on. It is not legal advice. Before making any decision that depends on whether Brazil has an AI statute, verify the current stage on the official tracking pages linked below—a page written at any date can be overtaken the following week. 这是一个关于正在进行的立法进程的状态页面，仅供查阅，不可作为法律依据。它不构成法律建议。在做出任何依赖于“巴西是否拥有人工智能法规”的决定之前，请务必通过下方链接的官方追踪页面核实当前阶段——任何日期撰写的页面都可能在下周被新的进展所取代。

How a Brazilian bill becomes law

巴西法案如何成为法律

The reason “approved by the Senate” is so frequently misreported as “passed” is that the remaining route is substantial and can change the text materially. A bill originating in the Senate goes to the Chamber of Deputies as the revising chamber. If the Chamber amends it, the amended text returns to the Senate, which decides between its own text and the Chamber’s. Only when both chambers have settled on one text does it go to the President, who may sanction it in whole, or veto provisions in part, with vetoes subject to being overridden by Congress. “获得参议院批准”经常被误报为“通过”，原因在于后续的立法程序非常复杂，且可能对文本内容进行实质性修改。由参议院发起的法案会进入众议院作为修订议院。如果众议院对其进行修订，修订后的文本将返回参议院，由参议院决定采用其原始文本还是众议院的修订文本。只有当两院就同一文本达成一致后，法案才会提交给总统。总统可以全盘批准，也可以部分否决，而国会有权推翻总统的否决。

Each of those stages has changed the substance of comparable Brazilian technology legislation. The LGPD itself, Brazil’s data protection statute, was enacted in 2018 and then amended before it ever took effect, including changes to the very provision on automated decisions that is now the operative Brazilian rule—see what Article 20 of the LGPD requires today. Treating a one-chamber text as final has a poor record in this jurisdiction specifically. 每一个阶段都曾改变过巴西类似科技立法的实质内容。以巴西的数据保护法规《通用数据保护法》(LGPD) 为例，它于 2018 年颁布，但在生效前就经过了修订，包括对目前巴西现行规则中关于自动化决策条款的修改——请参阅 LGPD 第 20 条当前的规定。在巴西司法管辖区，将单院通过的文本视为最终定稿的做法，历史上往往效果不佳。

What the Senate text contains

参议院文本包含的内容

Described accurately—as the content of an approved-by-one-chamber text, not as law—the Senate version is a comprehensive, risk-tiered instrument with clear EU influence and several distinctly Brazilian departures. Its principal elements are: 准确地说——作为一份仅由单院批准的文本内容，而非法律——参议院版本是一份全面且具有风险分级的工具，它明显受到了欧盟的影响，同时也包含了一些巴西特有的调整。其主要要素包括：

• A tier of excessive-risk systems that would be prohibited: covering the familiar ground of behavioural manipulation exploiting vulnerability, social scoring by public authorities, and constrained treatment of biometric identification. 禁止的过度风险系统分级： 涵盖了常见的领域，如利用弱点进行行为操纵、公共当局进行的社会信用评分，以及对生物识别技术的限制性处理。
• A high-risk tier with obligations attached: including governance measures, documentation, human oversight and algorithmic impact assessment, with the listed high-risk domains covering areas such as employment, credit, education, essential services and justice. 附带义务的高风险分级： 包括治理措施、文档记录、人工监督和算法影响评估。列出的高风险领域涵盖就业、信贷、教育、基本服务和司法等。
• Rights for affected persons: including information about AI involvement, explanation of decisions, contestation, and human review in defined circumstances—drafted more generously than the LGPD’s existing right. 受影响者的权利： 包括获知人工智能参与情况、决策解释权、异议权以及在特定情况下的复核权——其起草标准比 LGPD 现有的权利更为宽泛。
• A coordinated governance system: in which the national data protection authority, the ANPD, takes the coordinating role alongside sectoral regulators, rather than a wholly new regulator being created from scratch. 协调治理体系： 由国家数据保护局 (ANPD) 与行业监管机构共同发挥协调作用，而不是从零开始创建一个全新的监管机构。
• Copyright and remuneration provisions: addressing the use of protected works in training, which have been among the most contested parts of the text and are the provisions most likely to move in the Chamber. 版权与报酬条款： 涉及受保护作品在训练中的使用，这是文本中最具争议的部分之一，也是最有可能在众议院审议中发生变动的条款。

The resemblance to the EU AI Act’s risk tiers is real but should not be over-read. The Brazilian text approaches AI substantially through a rights and consumer-protection frame, drawing on the Consumer Defence Code tradition, where the EU instrument is built as product safety law. Obligations that look equivalent can be enforced through very different routes as a result. 该法案与欧盟《人工智能法案》在风险分级上的相似之处是客观存在的，但不应过度解读。巴西的文本主要通过权利和消费者保护的框架来处理人工智能问题，借鉴了《消费者保护法》的传统，而欧盟的工具则是作为产品安全法构建的。因此，看起来相似的义务可能会通过截然不同的途径来执行。

What is genuinely unresolved

真正悬而未决的问题

Three questions are open and none of them can be answered by reading the Senate text. 有三个问题尚未解决，仅阅读参议院文本无法回答：

1. Whether it passes at all, and in what form. Brazilian industry associations have pressed for narrower scope and lighter obligations, and civil society organisations for stronger rights and tighter biometric limits. A special committee is exactly the venue in which a text is rewritten. Anyone telling you what the final Brazilian AI law will say is predicting, not reporting. 法案是否会通过，以及以何种形式通过。 巴西行业协会一直在推动缩小范围和减轻义务，而民间社会组织则要求更强的权利保障和更严格的生物识别限制。特别委员会正是重写文本的场所。任何告诉你巴西最终人工智能法案内容的人，都是在预测，而非报道。
2. How enforcement would be allocated. Coordination between the ANPD and sectoral regulators is described at a level of generality that leaves the practical question—who inspects, who fines, who resolves a conflict between two regulators—to implementing rules that do not exist. 执法权如何分配。 ANPD 与行业监管机构之间的协调描述过于笼统，导致实际问题——谁来检查、谁来罚款、谁来解决两个监管机构之间的冲突——留给了尚不存在的实施细则。
3. When any of it would apply. Comprehensive statutes of this kind normally carry a transition period, and the length of that period is one of the most heavily negotiated numbers in the text. Until enactment there is no commencement date to plan against. 何时生效。 此类综合性法规通常设有过渡期，而过渡期的长短是文本中谈判最激烈的数字之一。在法案颁布之前，没有可供规划的生效日期。

How to check the status yourself

如何自行核实状态

Brazilian legislative tracking is public and unusually good, and checking takes a minute. Open the Federal Senate’s tracking page for PL 2338/2023, which lists every procedural step with its date and links the text as approved by the Senate. Then check the Chamber of Deputies’ proposition search. A Senate bill is renumbered on arrival at the Chamber, so search by the original number and follow the link to the Chamber’s own record. 巴西的立法追踪系统是公开的，且非常完善，核实过程只需一分钟。打开联邦参议院关于 PL 2338/2023 的追踪页面，该页面列出了每一个程序步骤及其日期，并链接了参议院批准的文本。然后查看众议院的提案搜索。参议院法案在到达众议院时会被重新编号，因此请使用原始编号进行搜索，并点击链接查看众议院的记录。

If the Chamber has approved a text, check whether it returned to the Senate. Only a text settled by both chambers and sanctioned by the President is law, and the sanction is published in the Diário Oficial da União with a statute number. Read the enacted number, not the bill number. When Brazilian AI legislation exists it will be cited as a Lei with a year, and the disappearance of “PL” from the citation is the reliable signal that something has actually changed. 如果众议院批准了文本，请检查它是否返回了参议院。只有两院达成一致并经总统批准的文本才是法律，批准信息会带有法规编号发布在《联邦官方公报》(Diário Oficial da União) 上。请阅读颁布后的编号，而非法案编号。当巴西人工智能立法正式出台时，它将被引用为带有年份的“Lei”（法律），而引用中“PL”（法案）的消失，才是某项法律真正生效的可靠信号。