On July 12, 2024, the European Union's Artificial Intelligence Act, Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 (EU AI Act) was published in the Official Journal of the EU. It is the first comprehensive legal framework for the regulation of artificial intelligence (AI) systems across the EU and will closely follow the prior versions of the text, which can be found here. The EU AI Act will enter into force across all EU Member States on August 1, 2024, and the enforcement of the majority of its provisions will apply from August 2, 2026. However, it is subject to a transition period and, therefore, will become applicable in stages. Some key dates are outlined below:
- The ban on AI systems that pose an unacceptable risk (such as AI systems that exploit individuals' vulnerabilities, untargeted scraping of facial images from the internet or CCTV footage to create facial recognition databases), will come into force on February 2, 2025.
- Specific obligations applicable to general-purpose AI models will become effective on August 2, 2025. There will be an additional two-year grace period for models already on the EU market at that time, and they have until August 2, 2027, to comply.
- The obligations for high-risk systems will apply from August 2, 2026. If the system is part of a product that is subject to EU health and safety laws, then the rules will apply a year later (i.e., August 2, 2027). Operators of systems that are already offered in the EU before the application of the EU AI Act will need to comply only if there is a significant design change. There is an exception where the system is already offered in the EU and is intended to be used by public authorities and then compliance will be required by August 2030, irrespective of whether there has been a significant design change or not.
- AI systems that are components of large-scale IT systems established by the legislation listed in Annex X of the EU AI Act (i.e., the IT systems relating to the Schengen Information System) and are offered in the EU market or put into service before August 2027, must comply with the EU AI Act by December 31, 2030.
Non-compliance with the EU AI Act can result in the imposition of fines of up to €35 million or 7% of total worldwide annual turnover, whichever is higher.
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