AI Act (Base)

The Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act) is a European Union regulation that establishes the first-ever comprehensive legal framework for AI. It adopts a risk-based approach, classifying AI systems into four categories: unacceptable risk, high risk, limited risk, and minimal risk. Practices deemed to pose an unacceptable risk, such as social scoring by public authorities and manipulative AI, are prohibited. High-risk AI systems, such as those used in critical infrastructure, medical devices, or recruitment, are subject to strict requirements before they can be placed on the market. These requirements include robust risk management systems, high-quality data governance, detailed technical documentation, transparency, human oversight, and high levels of accuracy and cybersecurity. Systems with limited risk, like chatbots, are subject to transparency obligations to ensure users know they are interacting with an AI. Minimal-risk AI systems are not regulated. The regulation also introduces specific rules for general-purpose AI (GPAI) models, with additional obligations for models that pose systemic risks. The regulation also specifies baseline requirements on topics such as training and AI awareness and codes of conduct concerning AI usage in organisations. The Act has extraterritorial reach, and applies to all providers who place AI systems on the EU market, regardless of where they are based.