Prepare your business for the EU AI Act

All entities involved in providing, manufacturing, supplying, distributing, or deploying AI systems and models—including companies, foundations, associations, research laboratories, or any other legal entities—operating within or outside the EU must adhere to the regulations outlined in the AI Act if the AI system is placed on the EU market or its use affects people located in the EU.

The AI Act does not apply to military AI systems, AI systems used for the sole purpose of scientific research and development, or open-source AI if it is not banned or classified as high-risk.

The new rules of the AI Act will apply in the same way across all EU member states through a framework based on four levels of risk:

• Unacceptable-risk AI systems are AI systems considered a threat to the fundamental rights of people. 

• High-risk AI systems, broadly defined, include risks to critical infrastructures, such as medical devices, education, and law enforcement.  Such AI systems will be required to comply with strict requirements.

• Minimal-risk AI systems are AI-enabled recommender systems or spam filters. These AI systems will not be subject to any additional legal obligations, as they present only minimal or no risk.

• Specific-transparency-risk AI systems refer to chatbots and deep fake generators. AI-generated content will have to be labeled as such.

Yes, like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the AI Act applies to EU organizations as well as organizations outside the EU that are subject to it if they use AI in products and/or services directed at EU consumers. 

If the outcomes of their AI systems are used within the EU, both providers and users (whether developing, introducing, selling, distributing, or utilizing) situated outside the EU must abide by the AI Act.

The AI Act states significant fines for violations of its terms, as follows:

• Companies that are non-compliant with the prohibition of AI practices will be fined up to €35 million or 7% of global annual turnover (whichever is higher).

• For violation of GPAI obligations or noncompliance with enforcement measures, companies may be subject to fines of up to €15 million or 3% of global annual turnover for violations of other obligations (whichever is higher).

• Providing incorrect, incomplete, or misleading information to notified bodies or national competent authorities in reply to a request will be subject to a fine of up to €7.5 million or 1% of global annual turnover (whichever is higher).

• More proportional caps are foreseen for administrative fines for small and medium enterprises and startups in case of infringements of the AI Act.

A “general purpose AI model” (GPAI) is an AI model that displays significant generality. It is capable of competently performing a wide range of distinct tasks and can be integrated into a variety of downstream systems or applications. 

Prominent examples of such GPAI models are GPT-4, DALL-E, Google BERT, or Midjourney 5.1.

The AI Act (AIA) has been given the green light by EU institutions, paving the way for it to officially become law on August 1, 2024—followed by a two-year phased implementation period.

From February 2025, both prohibited systems and AI literacy requirements will become enforceable.

No. All courses within the track are theory-based and require no pre-existing skills. Start from scratch and build up your knowledge with DataCamp’s interactive learning approach.