European AI Act: Definition and Examples
The European AI Act is the world's first regulatory framework dedicated to artificial intelligence, adopted by the European Union to govern the development, placing on the market, and use of AI systems according to a risk-based approach.
Full definition
The AI Act (or European Regulation on Artificial Intelligence) is a pioneering legislation adopted by the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union in 2024. It constitutes the world's first binding legal text specifically dedicated to regulating artificial intelligence. Its main objective is to ensure that AI systems deployed in Europe respect fundamental rights, safety, and democratic values, while fostering innovation.
The regulation is based on a classification of AI systems into four risk levels: unacceptable, high, limited, and minimal. Practices deemed unacceptable risk are outright prohibited (social scoring, subliminal manipulation, real-time mass biometric surveillance). High-risk systems—such as those used in recruitment, justice, healthcare, or education—are subject to strict obligations of transparency, documentation, human oversight, and data management.
For limited-risk systems, like chatbots or deepfakes, the AI Act mainly imposes transparency obligations: the user must be informed that they are interacting with AI or that content has been artificially generated. Minimal-risk systems, which represent the majority of AI applications, are subject to no specific obligations but may adhere to voluntary codes of conduct.
The AI Act also provides for the creation of a European AI Office (AI Office) responsible for overseeing the application of the regulation, particularly for general-purpose AI models (such as GPT-4 or Claude). Penalties for non-compliance can reach 35 million euros or 7% of global annual turnover. The text enters into application gradually between 2025 and 2027, with different deadlines depending on the risk categories.
Etymology
The term 'AI Act' is the common abbreviation of 'Artificial Intelligence Act', known in French as 'Règlement sur l'intelligence artificielle'. It follows the European legislative tradition of regulatory 'Acts', similar to the Digital Services Act (DSA) and the Digital Markets Act (DMA). The qualifier 'European' distinguishes it from regulatory initiatives in other jurisdictions.
Concrete examples
Assessing compliance of an AI system
My company develops an AI tool that analyzes resumes to shortlist candidates. According to the European AI Act, in which risk category does this system fall and what obligations must we comply with?
Writing an AI transparency policy
Draft an information notice compliant with the European AI Act for a customer service chatbot, explaining to users that they are interacting with an artificial intelligence system.
Understanding implications for generative models
What are the specific obligations imposed by the European AI Act on providers of general-purpose AI models (GPAI) like large language models?
Practical usage
In prompt engineering, knowledge of the AI Act is essential for formulating requests compliant with transparency and human oversight requirements. When designing prompt systems for applications deployed in Europe, systematically integrate disclosure mechanisms (informing the user that they are interacting with AI) and traceability mechanisms (documenting prompts and outputs). Use AI to audit your own systems by asking it to assess the conformity of your use cases according to the AI Act risk grid.
Related concepts
FAQ
When does the European AI Act come into force?
Does the AI Act only concern European companies?
What are the penalties for non-compliance with the AI Act?
See also
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