The EU Artificial Intelligence (AI) Act: An Introduction

As part of its digital strategy, the European Commission proposed the world’s first-ever comprehensive legal framework on AI in April 2021. In December 2023, the Council and the Parliament reached a political agreement on the EU’s new Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act). The AI Act follows a risk-based approach and aims to ensure that AI systems placed on or used in the EU market are safe and respect fundamental rights. The AI Act is expected to become a model for AI governance worldwide in a similar way that the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has influenced data protection regulation beyond European borders. While technical negotiations on the final text are ongoing and the final wording of the provisional agreement is not yet public, this article aims at providing a detailed overview and analysis of the upcoming provisions and requirements of the AI Act based on public (and some non-public) reports and press releases on the political agreement reached by the Council and the Parliament. AI Act, EU, Artificial Intelligence, AI, AI Systems, High-Risk, General Purpose, GPAI, Generative AI, Foundation Models, ChatGPT