...which is basically banning people from measuring risk for themselves and deciding how to react to that risk themselves. How is this not authoritarian?
Authoritatian can mean so many things, could you define it further. Cause how I read your comment I could call seatbelt laws authoritatian, and I guess you didn't mean that.
The EU isn't planning to ban underlying AI technologies, but instead to control its use in applications such as credit worthiness assessment