The ‘status question’ concerns the matter of qualifying and categorizing artificial intelligence (AI) systems in legal terms. It is of paramount concern - in legal theory and practice alike - that this question is answered due to the fact that on its answer a host of consequences depend, or, rather, its answer determines what legislation is applicable and enforceable in relation to the practical uses and the ensuing consequences of those uses of AI. This is what the presentation and eponymous article seek to contribute to, by proposing negotiation as the method by which an optimal answer to such a question can be arrived at. The parties involved in the negotiation and the terms being negotiated are also penned out, in an attempt to frame the apparently unsolvable theoretical debates into a practical issue of procedural creativity by situating that answer in the EU’s current context, especially with regards to the AI Act proposal.