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AI Act

The AI Act is the first-ever legal framework on AI, which addresses the risks of AI and positions Europe to play a leading role globally.

The AI Act (Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 laying down harmonised rules on artificial intelligence) is the first-ever comprehensive legal framework on AI worldwide. The aim of the rules is to foster trustworthy AI in Europe. For any questions on the AI Act , check out the AI Act Single Information platform .

The AI Act sets out a risk-based rules for AI developers and deployers regarding specific uses of AI. The AI Act is part of a wider package of policy measures to support the development of trustworthy AI, which also includes the AI Continent Action Plan, the AI Innovation Package and the launch of AI Factories. Together, these measures guarantee safety, fundamental rights and human-centric AI, and strengthen uptake, investment and innovation in AI across the EU.

To facilitate the transition to the new regulatory framework, the Commission has launched the AI Pact, a voluntary initiative that seeks to support the future implementation, engage with stakeholders and invite AI providers and deployers from Europe and beyond to comply with the key obligations of the AI Act ahead of time. In parallel, the AI Act Service Desk is also providing information and support for a smooth and effective implementation of the AI Act across the EU.

Why do we need rules on AI?

The AI Act ensures that Europeans can trust what AI has to offer. While most AI systems pose limited to no risk and can contribute to solving many societal challenges, certain AI systems create risks that we must address to avoid undesirable outcomes.

For example, it is often not possible to find out why an AI system has made a decision or prediction and taken a particular action. So, it may become difficult to assess whether someone has been unfairly disadvantaged, such as in a hiring decision or in an application for a public benefit scheme.

Although existing legislation provides some protection, it is insufficient to address the specific challenges AI systems may bring.

A Risk-based Approach

The AI Act defines 4 levels of risk for AI systems:

Unacceptable risk

All AI systems considered a clear threat to the safety, livelihoods and rights of people are banned. The AI Act prohibits nine practices , namely:

harmful AI-based manipulation and deception

harmful AI-based exploitation of vulnerabilities

social scoring

Individual criminal offence risk assessment or prediction

untargeted scraping of the internet or CCTV material to create or expand facial recognition databases

emotion recognition in workplaces and education institutions

biometric categorisation to deduce certain protected characteristics

real-time remote biometric identification for law enforcement purposes in publicly accessible spaces

AI systems that generate non-consensual sexually explicit and intimate content or child sexual abuse (CSAM) material, such as AI ‘nudification' apps

Prohibitions 1-8 became effective in February 2025. The Commission published 2 key documents to support the practical application of the prohibited practices:

The guidelines on prohibited AI practices under the AI Act, which offer legal explanations and practical examples to help stakeholders understand and comply with the prohibitions.

The guidelines on the AI system definition of the AI Act, to assist stakeholders in determining the scope of the AI Act

Prohibition 9 comes into effect in December 2026 and was introduced as a part of the AI Omnibus package.

High risk

AI use cases that can pose serious risks to health, safety or fundamental rights are classified as high-risk. These high-risk use-cases include:

AI safety components in critical infrastructures (e.g. transport), the failure of which could put the life and health of citizens at risk

AI solutions used in education institutions, that may determine the access to education and course of someone’s professional life (e.g. scoring of exams)

AI-based safety components of products (e.g. AI application in robot-assisted surgery)

AI tools for employment, management of workers and access to self-employment (e.g. CV-sorting software for recruitment)

Certain AI use-cases utilised to give access to essential private and public services (e.g. credit scoring denying citizens opportunity to obtain a loan)

AI systems used for remote biometric identification, emotion recognition and biometric categorisation (e.g. AI system to retroactively identify a shoplifter)

AI use-cases in law enforcement that may interfere with people’s fundamental rights (e.g. evaluation of the reliability of evidence)

AI use-cases in migration, asylum and border control management (e.g. automated examination of visa applications)

AI solutions used in the...