The EU Artificial Intelligence Act officially comes into effect on the 1st. The bill is the world's first comprehensive regulation to regulate artificial intelligence, marking an important step for the EU in regulating the application of artificial intelligence. EU Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton evaluated the bill as "an effective, proportionate and world-first artificial intelligence framework."
The bill stipulates that artificial intelligence systems such as chatbots must clearly inform users that they are interacting with machines, and artificial intelligence technology providers must ensure that synthesized audio, video, text and image content can be detected as artificial intelligence-generated content. In addition, the bill stipulates that the use of artificial intelligence systems that are considered to pose a clear threat to the fundamental rights of users is prohibited.
For companies that violate regulations, the EU will impose fines of up to 7% of global annual turnover.
EU member states need to designate the competent authorities for market surveillance and applicable laws in their respective countries before August 2, 2025. The European Commission’s Artificial Intelligence Office will be the key agency for the implementation of the bill at EU level.
It is reported that the relevant rules of the EU Artificial Intelligence Act will be implemented in phases. Some rules will take effect 6 months or 12 months after the passage of the law, while most rules will take effect on August 2, 2026.
The European Commission proposed a draft negotiation authorization for the Artificial Intelligence Act proposal in April 2021. In December last year, the European Parliament, EU member states and the European Commission reached an agreement on the Artificial Intelligence Act.