EU Begins Applying New Rules On General Purpose AI Models To Enhance Safety

(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) BRUSSELS, Aug 2 (KUNA) -- The European Union (EU) announced Saturday the entry into application of AI Act obligations for providers of general-purpose AI (GPAI) models across the EU, aiming to bring "more transparency, safety and accountability to AI systems on the market."
EU Commissioner for Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy, Henna Virkkunen, said in a statement, "We all use AI in our daily lives: in particular, we rely on so-called آ'General Purpose AIآ' (GPAI) models," adding that "the AI Act obligations for providers of GPAI models enter into application across the EU making these models more transparent, trustworthy, and safe to use."
The statement clarified that the new rules are designed to ensure clearer information about how AI models are trained, better enforcement of copyright protections, and more responsible AI development.
To assist providers in complying with the rules, the Commission said it had published guidelines clarifying who must comply with the obligations, along with a standardised template for summarising the data used to train the models. GPAI models are defined as those trained with over 10^23 FLOP and capable of generating language.
It also confirmed that the GPAI Code of Practice, developed by independent experts, is considered an adequate voluntary tool to demonstrate compliance with the AI Act. Providers who sign and adhere to the Code will benefit from reduced burden and increased legal certainty.
As of today, providers of GPAI models must comply with transparency and copyright obligations when placing their models on the EU market. Models already on the market before August 2, 2025, must ensure full compliance by August 2, 2027.
In addition, providers of the most advanced or impactful models posing systemic risks defined as those exceeding 10^25 FLOP will be subject to further obligations, including notifying the Commission and ensuring the safety and security of their models.
A total of 26 companies have signed the Code of Practice on General-Purpose AI Models, including major tech firms such as Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and IBM, as well as AI providers like OpenAI, Franceآ's Mistral AI, and Germanyآ's Aleph Alpha.
Meanwhile, Meta had earlier announced its refusal to join the Code, arguing that it "restricts innovation and that Europe is heading down the wrong path on AI."
As of today, the 27 EU member states are required to appoint national oversight authorities to monitor the implementation of the AI Act and ensure that companies in their jurisdictions comply with the rules. In cases of violations, fines for general-purpose AI tools could reach up to 17 million dollars or 3% of a companyآ's annual global turnover. (end)
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