EU AI Act (AI Regulation)
The EU AI Act (Regulation (EU) 2024/1689) is the first comprehensive AI regulation in the world; it classifies AI systems by risk – unacceptable, high, limited and minimal – and imposes graduated obligations on providers and deployers alike.
In practice
Legal position as described here: 14 August 2026. Since February 2025, providers and deployers have had to take measures to promote the AI literacy of the people who operate AI systems for them or use their output; since the amendment by Regulation (EU) 2026/1744 (in force since 27 July 2026) it is clarified that no particular level of literacy has to be guaranteed. Since 2 August 2025 the obligations for general-purpose AI models have applied, along with the governance rules and the member states' penalty regimes, and since 2 August 2026 the transparency duties of Article 50. The deadlines for high-risk systems, by contrast, have been postponed: under Regulation (EU) 2026/1744 ("Digital Omnibus on AI", OJ L, 2026/1744 of 24 July 2026, in force since 27 July 2026), standalone high-risk systems under Annex III now face 2 December 2027 instead of the original 2 August 2026, and high-risk AI embedded in products under Annex I 2 August 2028. Companies that only use AI tools rather than developing them should still know which AI applications they use and classify them by risk level; which obligations follow from that depends on whether the company acts as a provider or as a deployer.