AI. Aye? Nay!
“With effect from 02 February 2025, the EU has banned various AI practices judged to have the greatest potential for harm to individuals in connection with their offering or use within the EU, and has also imposed a positive obligation on developers and deployers of AI systems to ensure their staff and others acting on their behalf are sufficiently literate in AI to do so effectively. ”
Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 June 2024 laying down harmonised rules on artificial intelligence and amending Regulations (EC) No 300/2008, (EU) No 167/2013, (EU) No 168/2013, (EU) 2018/858, (EU) 2018/1139 and (EU) 2019/2144 and Directives 2014/90/EU, (EU) 2016/797 and (EU) 2020/1828, better known as the EU Artificial Intelligence Act or EU AI Act, was published in the Official Journal on 12 July 2024 and consequently entered into force on 01 August 2024.
While the majority of the EU AI Act will not become applicable until 02 August 2026, some provisions will apply earlier.
With effect from today, 02 February 2025, Chapter I (General provisions) and Chapter II (Prohibited AI practices) apply. As a consequence, the following AI practices are now banned in connection with AI systems or models offered for use or used in the EU or affecting persons in the EU:
Subliminal, manipulative or deceptive techniques [Article 5(1)(a) EU AI Act];
Exploitation of vulnerabilities due to age, disability or a specific social or economic situation [Article 5(1)(b) EU AI Act];
Social scoring leading to detrimental or unfavourable treatment [Article 5(1)(c) EU AI Act];
Predictive policing/law enforcement [Article 5(1)(d) EU AI Act];
Creation or expansion of facial recognition databases based on untargeted scraping from the internet or CCTV [Article 5(1)(e) EU AI Act];
Emotion recognition at work or education [Article 5(1)(f) EU AI Act];
Biometric categorisation to deduce or infer race, political opinions, trade union membership, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life or sexual orientation (i.e. the personal data types identified as special category personal data at Article 9 EU GDPR save for that of health) [Article 5(1)(g) EU AI Act]; and,
Real-time biometric identification in public spaces for law enforcement [Article 5(1)(h) EU AI Act].
Also coming into force is the positive obligation on providers and deployers of AI systems to use best endeavours to ensure that those they entrust to operate and use AI systems have sufficient AI literacy [Article 4 EU AI Act].
Other exceptions to the general timetable for the implementation of the EU AI Act relate to: Article 6(1) (Classification rules for high-risk AI systems) which shall apply later, from 02 August 2027; and, Chapter III (High Risk AI Systems) Section 4 (Notifying authorities & notified bodies), Chapter V (General Purpose AI models), Chapter VII (Governance) and Chapter XII (Penalties) (except Article 101) and Article 78, which shall apply from 02 August 2025.
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