What is the EU AI Act, in plain terms?

The Artificial Intelligence Act, Regulation (EU) 2024/1689, is the EU law that regulates AI systems according to the risk they pose. A few practices are banned outright, such as social scoring and certain uses of emotion recognition at work. High-risk systems, listed by area, such as AI used in recruitment, worker management, credit decisions or as a safety component of critical infrastructure, must meet requirements on risk management, data quality, documentation, human oversight, accuracy and security before and after they are placed on the market. Some systems carry transparency duties, for example telling people they are talking to a chatbot. Most other AI, such as spam filters, faces no specific obligations. Separate rules cover general-purpose AI models. Duties fall on providers, who develop and place systems on the market, and on deployers, who use them professionally. Since 2 February 2025, Article 4 has required both to take measures on their staff's AI literacy, which since its amendment in July 2026 means supporting that literacy rather than guaranteeing a set level for each person; other parts apply in stages. Check with your supplier what class their system falls into.

General information, not legal advice. National laws can add to the EU texts quoted here, for example deadlines, forms or reporting channels: check your own country's rules.

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