Scope and obligations

Risk-based framework. Prohibited practices (Art. 5) effective Feb 2025; general-purpose AI obligations Aug 2025; high-risk system obligations Aug 2026.

EU AI Act addresses 12 contested AI-governance topics explicitly, 4 via general principles,.

Topics governed

• governs
  Foundation Models / GPAI— Arts. 51-55 (general-purpose AI + systemic risk)
• governs
  Biometric Identification— Art. 5(1)(h) prohibition + Art. 26(10) post-hoc rules
• governs
  Deepfakes / Synthetic Content— Art. 50(4) (disclosure obligation for deep fakes)
• governs
  AI in Employment— Annex III §4 (high-risk: employment management)
• governs
  AI in Healthcare— Annex III §5(a) (high-risk: essential services) + MDR overlap
• governs
  AI in Criminal Justice— Annex III §6 (high-risk: law enforcement)
• governs
  AI in Education— Annex III §3 (high-risk: educational access)
• governs
  Compute-Threshold Reporting— Art. 52 + Annex XIII (10²⁵ FLOP presumption)
• governs
  Transparency Obligations— Arts. 13, 50 (transparency obligations)
• governs
  Individual Redress— Art. 85 (right to lodge complaints)
• implicit
  Training-Data Rights— Recital 105; CDSM Directive provides primary copyright framework
• implicit
  Catastrophic & Existential Risk— Art. 51 + Recital 32 — systemic risk overlaps with but does not fully cover catastrophic-risk framing
• implicit
  Technological Sovereignty— Recitals 1-5 + EU competence framing; AI Office establishes EU capacity
• implicit
  Agentic AI Governance— Arts. 26-29 deployer obligations apply to agent operators; Arts. 51-55 GPAI obligations capture the underlying model
• governs
  Open-Weight Frontier Release— Art. 53(2) + Recital 102/104 — explicit open-source GPAI exemption (with caveats for systemic-risk models)
• governs
  Synthetic Content Provenance— Art. 50(2) — provider machine-readable marking obligation; Art. 50(4) — deployer disclosure for deep fakes (distinct from the `deepfakes` topic which focuses on misuse-harms)

Cross-jurisdiction comparison

How peer instruments treat the topics EU AI Act governs.

How to cite this article

Policy Window. (2024). EU AI Act [Wiki article — Instrument]. https://policywindow.org/wiki/eu-ai-act

Policy Window. 2024. "EU AI Act." Wiki article (Instrument). https://policywindow.org/wiki/eu-ai-act.

@misc{policywindow-eu-ai-act,
  title  = {EU AI Act},
  author = {Policy Window},
  year   = {2024},
  howpublished = {Regulation (EU) 2024/1689},
  url    = {https://policywindow.org/wiki/eu-ai-act},
  note   = {Primary source: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32024R1689}
}

Related instruments

• Executive Order 14110 on Safe, Secure, Trustworthy AI · US
• Interim Measures for Generative AI Service Management · CN
• G7 Hiroshima AI Process Code of Conduct · G7
• OECD AI Principles (Recommendation) · OECD
• Council of Europe Framework Convention on AI · council_of_europe
• NIST AI Risk Management Framework · US
• Seoul Declaration on Safe, Innovative and Inclusive AI · global
• NIST AI RMF Generative AI Profile · US
• California SB-1047: Safe and Secure Innovation for Frontier AI Models Act · US
• India Digital Personal Data Protection Act + AI Advisory (MEITY) · IN
• Brazil AI Bill (PL 2338/2023) · BR
• Anthropic Responsible Scaling Policy (RSP) v2 · US
• Meta Frontier AI Framework · US
• White House Voluntary AI Commitments · US
• Singapore Model AI Governance Framework for Generative AI · SG
• Japan METI AI Guidelines for Business · JP

Scope and obligations

Principles-based, regulator-led approach (no statutory AI law). Cross-sectoral principles delegated to existing regulators. AISI established Nov 2023 for evaluation/safety research.

UK Pro-Innovation Approach to AI Regulation (White Paper) addresses 0 contested AI-governance topics explicitly, 9 via general principles,.

Topics governed

• implicit
  Foundation Models / GPAI— Cross-cutting principles; sector regulators apply
• implicit
  Biometric Identification— ICO + Surveillance Camera Commissioner remit
• implicit
  AI in Employment— ICO + EHRC remit
• implicit
  AI in Healthcare— MHRA software-as-medical-device
• implicit
  AI in Criminal Justice— Forensic Information Databases Strategy Board
• implicit
  Transparency Obligations— Principle 4 (transparency + explainability)
• implicit
  Individual Redress— Principle 5 (contestability + redress)
• implicit
  Catastrophic & Existential Risk— AISI remit covers frontier-model evaluation; not in white paper text
• implicit
  Technological Sovereignty— Sovereign-capability framing in UK AI Action Plan (2025) — not in 2023 white paper

How to cite this article

Policy Window. (2023). UK Pro-Innovation Approach to AI Regulation (White Paper) [Wiki article — Instrument]. https://policywindow.org/wiki/uk-ai-white-paper

Policy Window. 2023. "UK Pro-Innovation Approach to AI Regulation (White Paper)." Wiki article (Instrument). https://policywindow.org/wiki/uk-ai-white-paper.

@misc{policywindow-uk-ai-white-paper,
  title  = {UK Pro-Innovation Approach to AI Regulation (White Paper)},
  author = {Policy Window},
  year   = {2023},
  howpublished = {CP 815 (2023)},
  url    = {https://policywindow.org/wiki/uk-ai-white-paper},
  note   = {Primary source: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ai-regulation-a-pro-innovation-approach}
}