EU

EU Commission establishes guidelines for prohibited AI practices under AI Act, effective February 2025. Prohibitions include harmful manipulation, exploitation of vulnerabilities, social scoring, predictive criminal assessments, untargeted facial data scraping, emotion recognition, biometric categorization, and real-time remote biometric identification. Guidelines aim to clarify compliance and foster uniform application of the Act across the EU, though they are non-binding. Providers and deployers are responsible for ensuring AI systems meet regulations.

https://www.orrick.com/en/Insights/2025/04/EU-Commission-Publishes-Guidelines-on-the-Prohibited-AI-Practices-under-the-AI-Act

EU Commission clarifies AI definition: The Commission published guidelines detailing the definition of AI systems under the AI Act, outlining seven components, including machine-based systems, autonomy, adaptability, objective-driven outputs, inference capability, environmental interaction, and influence over environments. The guidelines help companies assess AI Act applicability. However, the guidelines are non-binding and not yet formally adopted.

https://www.orrick.com/en/Insights/2025/04/EU-Commission-Clarifies-Definition-of-AI-Systems

EU Commission invites feedback to clarify rules on general-purpose AI (GPAI) in a consultation aimed at shaping comprehensive guidelines to enhance understanding of GPAI concepts and compliance processes ahead of August 2025. Stakeholders can provide input until May 22, 2025.

https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/news/commission-seeks-input-clarify-rules-general-purpose-ai-models

The European Commission's guidelines for the AI Act mandate transparency in training data for general-purpose AI models, requiring public summaries detailing the data used. This has sparked debate over what constitutes “sufficiently detailed” information, balancing rights holders' needs for access against providers' interests in protecting strategic assets. A template to aid in compliance was released in January 2025, structured into sections covering model details, data sources, and processing aspects, with final guidelines expected by mid-2025. Legal disputes will ultimately shape the regulation's implementation and future AI standards globally.

https://www.advant-nctm.com/en/news/the-european-commissions-template-on-training-data-transparency-first-guidelines-for-the-ai-act

OpenAI urges the EU to simplify AI regulations to enhance innovation and competitiveness, warning complexity may drive investment to non-democratic regions. They propose a unified pro-growth strategy, tripling computing capacity, and training 100 million Europeans in AI by 2026. OpenAI advocates for synergy between regulations and growth initiatives to ensure EU leadership in AI, emphasizing the need for urgent action against competing autocratic investments while also promoting responsible AI development aligned with European values.

https://www.pymnts.com/artificial-intelligence-2/2025/ai-regulations-openai-calls-on-eu-to-review-simplify-ai-rules/

EU AI Act Technical Standards Delayed: The EU's AI Code of Practice drafting has been delayed due to alignment issues with copyright law and risk assessments. The final draft's delivery has been postponed to May, while technical standards may extend into 2026, impacting compliance timelines. National regulators must be established by August 2026.

https://www.pymnts.com/cpi-posts/eu-ai-act-technical-standards-delayed-until-next-year/

The EU AI Act regulates AI in the workplace to protect workers' rights, prohibiting high-risk practices like biometric categorization and emotion recognition, with exceptions. Employers must ensure worker consultation before deploying AI systems, but loopholes exist in obligations, especially for private sector employers. High-risk systems are overseen with specific rights for employees, including the right to explanations and the ability to lodge complaints. The Act emphasizes transparency but has limited mechanisms for enforcement, highlighting the need for stronger regulations to protect workers in AI settings.

https://cdt.org/insights/eu-ai-act-brief-pt-4-ai-at-work/