What the EU is describing as the world’s first comprehensive regulation on artificial intelligence (AI) comes into force today (1 August).

The EU’s AI Act harmonises the rules on the technology, following a risk-based approach, meaning that there will be stricter rules for AI technology seen as posing a higher risk to cause harm to society.

“With the entry into force of the AI Act, European democracy has delivered an effective, proportionate and world-first framework for AI, tackling risks and serving as a launchpad for European AI start-ups,” said Thierry Breton (commissioner for the internal market).

High-risk AI

Under the act, AI systems identified as ‘high-risk’ will be required to comply with strict requirements – including risk-mitigation systems, high quality of data sets, logging of activity, detailed documentation, clear user information, human oversight, and a high level of robustness, accuracy, and cyber-security.

Examples of high-risk systems include those used for recruitment, or to assess whether somebody is entitled to get a loan, or to run autonomous robots.

AI systems that are considered “a clear threat to the fundamental rights of people” will be banned.

These include systems or applications that manipulate human behaviour to circumvent users' free will, systems that allow ‘social scoring' by governments or companies, and certain applications of predictive policing.

In addition, some uses of biometric systems will be prohibited – including emotion-recognition systems used at the workplace and some systems for categorising people.

Real-time remote biometric identification for law-enforcement purposes in publicly accessible spaces will also be banned, with some exceptions.

National authorities

Member states have until 2 August 2025 to designate national competent authorities, to oversee the application of the rules for AI systems and carry out market-surveillance activities.

The EU says that most of the rules in the act will start applying on 2 August 2026.

The European Commission's AI Office will be the key implementation body for the act at EU level, as well as the enforcer for the rules for general-purpose AI models.

Companies not complying with the rules will be fined. Fines could go up to 7% of the global annual turnover for violations of banned AI applications, up to 3% for violations of other obligations, and up to 1.5% for supplying incorrect information.