The EU Artificial Intelligence Act

Up-to-date developments and analyses of the EU AI Act

AI Act Explorer

Browse the full AI Act text online. Search within the Act for parts which are relevant to you.

Compliance Checker

Discover how the AI Act will affect you in 10 minutes by answering a series of straightforward questions.

What is the EU AI Act?

The AI Act is a proposed European regulation on artificial intelligence (AI) – the first comprehensive regulation on AI by a major regulator anywhere. The Act assigns applications of AI to three risk categories. First, applications and systems that create an unacceptable risk, such as government-run social scoring of the type used in China, are banned. Second, high-risk applications, such as a CV-scanning tool that ranks job applicants, are subject to specific legal requirements. Lastly, applications not explicitly banned or listed as high-risk are largely left unregulated.

Why should you care?

AI applications influence what information you see online by predicting what content is engaging to you, capture and analyse data from faces to enforce laws or personalise advertisements, and are used to diagnose and treat cancer. In other words, AI affects many parts of your life.

Like the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in 2018, the EU AI Act could become a global standard, determining to what extent AI has a positive rather than negative effect on your life wherever you may be. The EU’s AI regulation is already making waves internationally. In late September 2021, Brazil’s Congress passed a bill that creates a legal framework for artificial intelligence. It still needs to pass the country’s Senate. 

How can organisations apply it?

We have developed a new tool at FLI to help European SMEs and startups better understand whether they might have any legal obligations under the EU AI Act or whether they may implement the Act solely to make their business stand out as more trustworthy. Please note that the Act is still in negotiations, and our tool is a simplification. There are three positions with different proposals for the Act currently available and we were selective to make the tool more user-friendly. This tool can help give an indication about what obligations your system might face. This tool is still a work in progress. Please use the tool here.

Articles on the AI Act

The AI Office is hiring

The European Commission is recruiting contract agents who are AI technology specialists to govern the most cutting-edge AI models.  Deadline to apply is 12:00 CET on 27 March (application form).  Role This is an opportunity to work in a team within the...

The AI Office: What is it, and how does it work?

In this overview, we offer a summary of the key elements of the AI Office relevant for those interested in AI governance. We’ve highlighted the responsibilities of the AI Office, its role within the European Commission, its relationship with the AI Board, its national...

AI Act Implementation: Timelines & Next steps

In this article we provide an outline of the key dates relevant to the implementation of the AI Act. We also list some secondary legislation that the Commission might add to supplement the AI Act, and some guidelines it may publish to support compliance efforts. The...