AI Safety Compendium

EU AI Act

2 min read

EU AI Act

The EU AI Act is the European Union’s flagship horizontal regulation of artificial intelligence — adopted in 2024 and entering force in stages through 2026. It is the most comprehensive piece of frontier-AI regulation in the world to date and a primary touchstone for European AI governance.

Structure

The Act takes a risk-tiered approach:

  1. Prohibited practices — e.g. social scoring, manipulation, real-time public biometric ID
  2. High-risk systems — strict pre-market and ongoing obligations (employment, education, law enforcement, critical infrastructure, etc.)
  3. General-purpose AI (GPAI) — separate obligations, with systemic-risk GPAI models facing additional requirements (this provision particularly shaped by Risto Uuk and FLI advocacy)
  4. Low/limited-risk — transparency obligations only

Enforcement

Enforcement is handled by:

  • EU AI Office — for general-purpose AI and cross-border systemic-risk cases
  • National competent authorities — for in-country enforcement of high-risk applications
  • GPAI Code of Practice — voluntary code that frontier AI providers can sign onto

Significance for the Wiki

The EU AI Act is the primary regulatory instrument that the Belgian/European AI x-risk policy cluster engages with:

  • risto-uuk contributed to shaping the GPAI and systemic risk provisions and runs the EU AI Act Newsletter (50,000+ subscribers).
  • Charbel-Raphaël Ségerie / CeSIA is a designated GPAI Code of Practice Evaluator.
  • FLI’s Brussels office has a long track record of drafting analyses on the EU AI Act and related liability questions.

Connection to This Wiki

  • Anchor regulation for ai-governance in the European context.
  • The EU AI Office enforces it; Uuk and FLI shaped its frontier-AI provisions; AIS Brussels aims to feed it senior talent.

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