EU AI Act
The world's first comprehensive AI law applies in stages since 2024; in 2026 high-risk duties were postponed to December 2027 and August 2028.
Open in the interactive tree →Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 entered into force on 1 August 2024; prohibitions (e.g. social scoring) apply since 2 February 2025 and duties for general-purpose AI models since 2 August 2025. It sorts AI by risk: prohibited, high-risk, transparency-bound, free.
As of October 2026
The 'AI Omnibus' Regulation (EU) 2026/1744 (Parliament 16 June, Council 29 June, published 24 July, in force 27 July 2026) moves high-risk duties for Annex III systems (e.g. hiring, education, law enforcement) from 2 August 2026 to 2 December 2027, and for AI embedded in products to 2 August 2028. The transparency duties of Article 50 (chatbot disclosure, deepfake labelling) apply since 2 August 2026; only machine-readable marking by generative AI systems already on the market before that date has a grace period until 2 December 2026. New bans on AI that generates child sexual abuse material and non-consensual intimate imagery apply from 2 December 2026, and national sandboxes are due by 2 August 2027. General-purpose AI duties stay unchanged.
Open steps
- Auditing methods for high-risk AI Medium AI leverageDevelop standardised procedures to audit high-risk AI (facial recognition, hiring, credit scoring) for bias, robustness and explainability.
- Standardised transparency reports Medium AI leverageDevelop standard model cards (training data, performance, limitations) that vendors must file for EU approval.
- Training national AI authorities Low AI leverageSupport technical training for national AI authorities across EU27 to evaluate AI risk and perform audits.
Where AI could help
Low AI leverage. The work is standards, guidance and national enforcement capacity; AI helps with documentation and testing only at the margins.
- Automate conformity documentation and model-evaluation reports for providers
- Detect and label synthetic content to meet Article 50 duties
- Help authorities triage incident reports and market surveillance
Prerequisites
- Copyright (Statute of Anne)1710The AI Act obliges general-purpose model providers to respect copyright law
- Human Rights (1948)1948
- European Integration1951The AI Act is EU law, made by the institutions that grew from the ECSC
- Data Protection (GDPR)2018The AI Act applies alongside GDPR to personal data in AI systems
- Large Language Models2022
Sources
More in Society, Economy & Law · Present
- Data Protection (GDPR)2018
- Platform Regulation (DMA/DSA)2023-2026
- Crypto & Stablecoin Rules2024-2026
- AI & the Labor Market2025-2026
- WHO Pandemic Agreement2025
- Digital Euro2026