Policy Briefing — EU AI Act Legislative Proposal
The European Commission proposed the Artificial Intelligence Act, a risk-based regulatory framework that bans unacceptable AI practices and imposes obligations on high-risk and general-purpose systems across the EU.
The draft regulation introduces common rules for placing AI systems on the EU market, banning social scoring and manipulative biometric surveillance while setting conformity, documentation, and human oversight requirements for high-risk uses. Providers of general-purpose AI must meet transparency and risk management duties, with national authorities and an EU-level AI Office coordinating enforcement.
- Risk-tiered obligations. The proposal defines prohibited, high-risk, limited-risk, and minimal-risk AI categories, with high-risk systems undergoing conformity assessments and incident reporting.
- General-purpose AI controls. Developers of foundational models must provide technical documentation, training data summaries, and risk mitigation plans for downstream users.
- Supervisory architecture. The Commission envisioned national competent authorities, a European Artificial Intelligence Board, and market surveillance coordination to oversee compliance.
Organizations should map product portfolios against the proposal’s risk tiers to anticipate implementation work before delegated acts and national enforcement begin.