The European Commission published its long-awaited Guidelines on Prohibited AI Practices (CGPAIP) on February 4, 2025, two days after the AI Act’s articles on prohibited practices became applicable.
The good news is that in clarifying these prohibited practices (and those excluded from its material scope), the CGPAIP also addresses other more general aspects
The European Commission has recently released its Guidelines on the Definition of an Artificial Intelligence System under the AI Act (Regulation (EU) 2024/1689). The guidelines are adopted in parallel to commission guidelines on prohibited AI practices (that also entered into application on February 2), with the goal of providing businesses, developers and regulators with further clarification on the AI Act’s provisions.
Key Takeaways for Businesses and AI Developers
Not all AI systems are subject to strict regulatory scrutiny. Companies developing or using AI-driven solutions should assess their systems against the AI Act’s definition. With these guidelines (and the ones of prohibited practices), the European Commission is delivering on the need to add clarification to the core element of the act: what is an AI system?
The AI Act defines an AI system as a machine-based system designed to operate with varying levels of autonomy and that may exhibit adaptiveness after deployment. The system, for explicit or implicit objectives, infers from input data how to generate outputs – such as predictions, content, recommendations or decisions – that can influence physical or virtual environments.
One of the most significant clarifications in the guidelines is the distinction between AI systems and “traditional software.”
This distinction ensures that compliance obligations under the AI Act apply only to AI-driven technologies, leaving other software solutions outside of its scope.Continue Reading The ReAIlity of What an AI System Is – Unpacking the Commission’s New Guidelines
Shortly after the publication of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Act, the EU Commission published the AI Pact’s draft commitments with a view of anticipating compliance with high-risk requirements for AI developers and deployers.
Publication and timeline for the AI Act
The EU AI Act was published in the Official Journal of the European Union on July 12, 2024, as “Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 June 2024 laying down harmonized rules on artificial intelligence.” We have presented the main provisions and purposes of the AI Act in our publication here.
The EU AI Act will enter into force across all 27 EU Member States on August 1, 2024, but has variable transition periods depending on the relevant parts of the AI Acts; starting with February 2, 2025, at which point, prohibited AI practices must be withdrawn from the market, and with the enforcement of the majority of its provisions commencing on August 2, 2026.
The call for participation on the AI Pact by the EU commission
In this context, the EU Commission issued a press release on July 22, 2024, promoting the “AI Pact”, seeking the industry’s voluntary commitment to anticipate the AI Act and to start implementing its requirements ahead of the legal deadline. The press release can be found here.
The AI Pact was first launched in November 2023, obtaining responses from over 550 organizations of various sizes, sectors, and countries.
The AI Office has since initiated the development of the AI Pact, which is structured around two pillars:Continue Reading The EU Commission’s Draft AI Pact anticipating compliance with newly published AI Act
Transparency, from the medieval Latin “transparentia”, is thought to have emerged in the late 16th century as a general term for a transparent object. In essence, it means the property of allowing light to pass through so that objects behind it can be clearly seen. But in the 21st century, transparency has a different and broader meaning.
The Spanish Data Protection Agency (Agencia Española Protección de Datos, or AEPD) published an article in September 2023 on transparency in the context of the proposed Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act) and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), clarifying that different actors, different information and different recipients are involved, depending on the regulation.Continue Reading AEPD’s Position Regarding Transparency (AIA vs. GDPR)