EU AI Act

Key dates

• August 1, 2024: Entry into force.
• February 2, 2025: Prohibited practices and AI literacy (Article 4, replaced by the Digital Omnibus on AI with a duty to take measures that support AI literacy).
• August 2, 2025: Rules for general-purpose AI models, governance and penalties.
• August 2, 2026: General application, including the transparency obligations of Article 50.
• December 2, 2027: High-risk obligations for stand-alone systems listed in Annex III — postponed from August 2026 by the Digital Omnibus on AI.
• August 2, 2028: High-risk obligations for AI in products covered by Annex I (for example machinery or medical devices) — postponed from August 2027.

How it applies

• Technical documentation: The AI Act is a product-safety law in the style of the New Legislative Framework. For high-risk systems it requires technical documentation, instructions for use, logging, a quality management system and a conformity assessment — documentation is how compliance is shown.
• Scope: It applies to providers placing AI on the EU market and to deployers in the EU, wherever they are established — and to providers and deployers outside the EU when the output of the system is used in the EU.
• Penalties: Up to EUR 35 million or 7% of worldwide annual turnover for prohibited practices, up to EUR 15 million or 3% for most other obligations, and up to EUR 7.5 million or 1% for supplying incorrect information — whichever is higher, and whichever is lower for SMEs.

Compared with the USA, Canada and China

No other of the four jurisdictions has a comprehensive AI law. The USA has withdrawn federal AI safety rules and relies on voluntary frameworks and state laws; Canada's comparable bill, AIDA, died in 2025; China regulates AI through a series of specific regulations and has a comprehensive AI law only on its legislative research agenda. See horizontal AI regulation for a side-by-side comparison.