The EU Artificial Intelligence Act

Overview of the EU AI Act

From the 2^nd of August 2024 AI placed on the EU market will be subject to the AI Act on a sliding scale based on the risk posed by the intended use of that AI. For instance:

• Social scoring systems and AI that remotely monitors people in real time in public spaces will be banned in most instances.
• AI used in medical devices or for the purposes of recruitment will be classed as high-risk and subject to stringent and far-reaching conformity assessment procedures.
• Deep fakes will be subject to transparency rules to ensure the public know exactly the nature of the technology they are dealing with.

The second of these categories, the high-risk AI category, will generate the most change for providers of AI systems. There is a list of seven detailed requirements which will likely cause many providers to significantly adjust their engineering processes and product procedures to ensure compliance. These are:

• Risk management system
• Accuracy, robustness and cybersecurity
• Data and data governance
• Human oversight
• Transparency and provision of information to users
• Record keeping
• Technical Documentation

Find out more about the four categories of risk under the AI Act.

What is the scope of the EU AI Act?

The scope of application of the AI Act will be very broad. Providing or deploying qualifying AI systems on the EU market will trigger compliance regardless of the location or group structure of the provider. Other actors in the AI economic chain will be subject to regulation also. There are some narrow exceptions for research and development and scientific uses.

Fines for non-compliance will be significant and are higher than those levied under GDPR and the DSA.

Find out more about who will be affected by the AI Act.

How will generative AI like ChatGPT be treated under the EU AI Act?

Generative AI is broken out into two distinct elements in the AI Act, general purpose AI models and general-purpose AI systems. The intention behind the distinction is to ensure appropriate and tailored regulation. The handful of large international organisations that have the capital and resources to create, train, and manage general-purpose AI models (like Gemini, Claude, Llama, GPT-4 etc.) will be regulated in a very different manner to those building AI applications on those general-purpose AI models (general-purpose AI systems). While the providers of general-purpose AI models will be subject to detailed and complex technical and transparency measures, those building related AI applications like chatbots will be subject to a lighter transparency and disclosures regime.

Find out more about General Purpose AI under the EU AI Act or read about how Chatbots and Deepfakes will be regulated under the Act.

When will the AI Act come into force?

The EU Artificial Intelligence Act came into force on 1 August 2024. The first major deadlines took effect on 2 February 2025 with the introduction of the ban on Article 5 prohibited AI systems, and the roll out of the obligation on all organisations using AI to ensure adequate AI literacy across their workforce.

From here, the AI Act will be rolled out over the course of a number of years with the main subsequent deadlines being 2 August 2025, 2 August 2026, and 2 August 2027.

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For more information on the EU AI Act or its impacts, contact a member of our dedicated Artificial Intelligence team.

The content of these articles are provided for information purposes only and does not constitute legal or other advice.