EU's AI Act enters into force

By Nur Asena Erturk

The EU’s Artificial Intelligence Act entered into force on Thursday.

The AI Act was adopted by members of the European Parliament in March, approved by the EU Council in May, and published in the Official Journal on July 12.

"It will be fully applicable 24 months after entry into force, but some parts will be applicable sooner," the EU previously said.

The regulation "aims to protect fundamental rights, democracy, the rule of law and environmental sustainability from high-risk AI, while boosting innovation and establishing Europe as a leader in the field," the European Parliament said in March.

"Cognitive behavioural manipulation of people or specific vulnerable groups: for example voice-activated toys that encourage dangerous behaviour in children … classifying people based on behaviour … biometric identification and categorisation of people,” and facial biometric recognition were ranked as "unacceptable risk," it said.

General-purpose AI (GPAI) systems are required to meet certain transparency criteria, and "artificial or manipulated images, audio or video content ('deepfakes') need to be clearly labelled as such," the parliament added.