What Does the AI Act Do?

The AI Act represents the world’s first comprehensive legislation aimed at regulating artificial intelligence (AI). The Act seeks to harmonise AI rules across the EU, balancing innovation with safety and the protection of fundamental rights. It categorises AI systems based on their potential societal risks: limited risk systems face light transparency obligations, while high-risk systems must meet stringent requirements to access the EU market. 

The Act prohibits AI applications that infringe on citizens' rights and democracy, including biometric categorisation based on sensitive characteristics, untargeted scraping of facial images, emotion recognition in workplaces and educational institutions, and social scoring.

The AI Act also addresses the use of AI in law enforcement with strict regulations and specific safeguards. Biometric identification systems in public spaces require prior judicial authorisation, and the use of real-time biometric identification is limited to scenarios such as preventing terrorist threats or locating individuals suspected of specific crimes. 

To enforce these regulations, the Act establishes a comprehensive governance architecture, including an AI Office within the European Commission, a scientific panel of independent experts, an AI Board with representatives from member states, and an advisory forum for stakeholder input.