EU AI Act Targeted Stakeholders Consultation on Prohibitions and Definition of AI Systems

Until 11 December 2024, artificial intelligence (AI) stakeholders such as AI systems providers, businesses, national authorities, academia, research institutions and civil society are invited to provide feedback to the AI Office on a targeted consultation under the European Union (EU) Artificial Intelligence Act (the AI Act). The consultation requests comments in relation to the definition of an AI system under Article 3(1) of the AI Act, as well as in relation to the prohibitions of certain uses of AI systems under Article 5.

The AI Act, which came into force in August 2024 (see part of our previous coverage here and here), has an extraterritorial impact and regulates all General Purpose AI, together with imposing obligations on other AI systems depending on the risk their use may pose.

The European Commission, via the AI Office, has an obligation under the AI Act to develop further guidelines on the practical implementation of various obligations, including as regards prohibited practices under Article 5.

It is welcome that the AI Office has launched the targeted consultation, and has stated that guidelines will be published in early 2025, hopefully ahead of the application of the relevant provisions on 2 February 2025.

The consultation provides an opportunity for stakeholders to share feedback and practical examples, in order to feed into the guidelines and enhance their clarity on practical aspects and use cases. Respondents are not required to answer all the questions in the consultation and are asked to provide concrete cases and examples in their responses. The questions on which the AI Office has invited input include:

• As regards the AI system definition: the elements of the definition of an AI system which in particular require further clarification; and examples of software systems or programming approaches that do not fall under the scope of the AI system as defined under the Article 3(1) of the AI Act.
• As regards each of prohibitions under Article 5: what elements of each prohibition require further clarification; concrete examples of AI systems that fulfil all elements of a certain prohibition; and concrete examples of AI systems where further clarification is needed as to whether the AI system is in the scope of the prohibition or not.

Stakeholders are encouraged to submit their contributions in the form available on this link. Please contact the Akin team with any queries or requests for assistance.