The EU AI Act, which entered into force in August 2024, establishes the world's first comprehensive legal framework for artificial intelligence:
Risk-Based Classification
- Unacceptable risk (banned): Social scoring by governments, real-time biometric identification in public spaces (with exceptions), emotion recognition in workplaces/schools, AI that manipulates human behavior
- High risk: AI in hiring, education, healthcare, law enforcement, migration — subject to strict requirements (transparency, human oversight, data quality)
- Limited risk: AI chatbots must disclose they are AI; deepfakes must be labeled
- Minimal risk: Most AI applications (spam filters, AI in games) — no restrictions
Impact
The AI Act is expected to have a "Brussels Effect" — influencing AI regulation globally, similar to GDPR's impact on data protection. Companies worldwide must comply if they want to serve the EU market.
Source
European Parliament (2024). Regulation (EU) 2024/1689.