EU publishes rollout schedule for AI Act

The European Union has published the final text of the Artificial Intelligence Act, outlining the most important deadlines for complying with the world’s first comprehensive AI rulebook.

After receiving its final green light from the EU Council in May, the legislation will come into force on August 1st, 2024. AI Act provisions will generally be fully applicable to AI developers operating within the bloc in two years, on August 2nd, 2026. By that same date, EU member states will have to have at least one AI regulatory sandbox operational at a national level.

Biometrics developers, providers and users, however, should take note that the deadline for the prohibition of “unacceptable risk” use cases of AI is February 2nd, 2025.

Banned AI applications include biometric categorization systems based on sensitive characteristics, emotion recognition in the workplace and schools, untargeted scraping of facial images from the web or CCTV footage to create facial recognition databases as well as real-time remote biometric identification in public spaces. The legislation, however, makes exceptions for law enforcement in specific circumstances.

The next important deadline is May 2nd, 2025 when providers should receive their codes of practice outlining how they can demonstrate their compliance. The codes of practice should be provided by the newly-established AI Office which ensures classification rules and procedures are up to date.

General-purpose AI systems, such as ChatGPT, will have to comply with copyright and transparency rules by August 2025.

By August 2027, one year after the AI Act becomes generally applicable, developers of high-risk AI systems will have to comply with additional obligations, outlined in Annex I of the AI Act. High-risk AI systems, which include remote biometric identification systems, can be used on the EU market as long as they comply with certain requirements.

Companies can expect hefty fines for certain AI practices: Up to 35 million euros (US$38.1 million) or seven percent of worldwide annual turnover, whichever is higher.

The European Commission also outlined the schedule for reviewing the regulation as well as amending the list of high-risk AI systems.

Article Topics

AI Act  |  biometric identification  |  biometrics  |  EU  |  facial recognition  |  legislation