EU AI Act

The EU AI Act (Regulation (EU) 2024/1689) is the world’s first comprehensive AI regulation. It entered into force in August 2024 and applies in stages. This entry provides factual orientation — it is not legal advice.

Risk-based approach

The AI Act assigns every application to one of four classes: unacceptable, high, limited and minimal risk. The higher the risk, the stricter the obligations. Prohibited practices such as social scoring are banned. What this means in operation is covered in Responsible AI & AI Act compliance.

What applies as of June 2026

Since 02.02.2025: the prohibitions and the AI literacy obligation for companies. Since 02.08.2025: obligations for GPAI models — transparency, copyright policy, training data summaries. From 02.08.2026, the EU AI Office gains full enforcement powers over GPAI providers.

What is being postponed

In May 2026, Council and Parliament reached a political agreement on the “Digital Omnibus”. It postpones the high-risk obligations: standalone systems (Annex III) to 02.12.2027, systems embedded in regulated products (Annex I) to 02.08.2028. Formal adoption is still pending as of June 2026 — until then, 02.08.2026 remains the legal deadline.

Why GPT, Claude & Co. are affected

ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini are built on GPAI models. The GPAI obligations target their providers — many have signed the GPAI Code of Practice. Companies as deployers mainly carry transparency and literacy obligations.

Last updated: June 2026