European Commission

7 entries between May 2018 and August 2026, 4 turning points.

Turning points

  1. EU AI Act obligations for general-purpose models take effect

    From 2 August 2025 the EU AI Act required providers of general-purpose AI models newly placed on the market to keep technical documentation, publish a summary of their training data, comply with EU copyright law, and share information with regulators and downstream developers.

  2. The EU AI Act enters into force

    The European Union’s AI Act entered into force on 1 August 2024, twenty days after publication in the Official Journal. The law sorts AI systems into four risk tiers, bans some uses outright, and phases in over two years, with most high-risk rules applying from August 2026.

  3. European Commission proposes the EU Artificial Intelligence Act

    The European Commission published its proposal for the Artificial Intelligence Act on 21 April 2021, sorting systems into risk tiers from unacceptable to minimal, setting mandatory duties for high-risk uses and transparency rules for chatbots and deepfake generators.

  4. GDPR takes effect across the European Union

    Regulation (EU) 2016/679 became directly applicable in every member state on 25 May 2018, replacing the 1995 Data Protection Directive. It requires a lawful basis for processing personal data, mandates breach notification, and carries fines of up to 4% of global annual revenue.

Every entry

  1. EU begins enforcing the AI Act’s transparency rules

    From 2 August 2026 the European Commission’s AI Office and national authorities began enforcing the AI Act’s transparency provisions: interactive systems must tell users they are AI, deepfakes must be labeled, and AI-generated content must carry machine-readable marks.

  2. EU AI Act obligations for general-purpose models take effect

    From 2 August 2025 the EU AI Act required providers of general-purpose AI models newly placed on the market to keep technical documentation, publish a summary of their training data, comply with EU copyright law, and share information with regulators and downstream developers.

  3. The EU AI Act enters into force

    The European Union’s AI Act entered into force on 1 August 2024, twenty days after publication in the Official Journal. The law sorts AI systems into four risk tiers, bans some uses outright, and phases in over two years, with most high-risk rules applying from August 2026.

  4. European Commission proposes the EU Artificial Intelligence Act

    The European Commission published its proposal for the Artificial Intelligence Act on 21 April 2021, sorting systems into risk tiers from unacceptable to minimal, setting mandatory duties for high-risk uses and transparency rules for chatbots and deepfake generators.

  5. European Commission publishes a white paper on AI

    The European Commission published “White Paper on Artificial Intelligence: a European approach to excellence and trust” on 19 February 2020, alongside a report on safety and liability and a European data strategy. A public consultation ran to June.

  6. European Commission publishes AI ethics guidelines

    The European Commission’s high-level expert group published Ethics Guidelines for Trustworthy AI on 8 April 2019, setting out four principles and seven requirements, among them human oversight, privacy, transparency, and accountability. The guidelines were voluntary.

  7. GDPR takes effect across the European Union

    Regulation (EU) 2016/679 became directly applicable in every member state on 25 May 2018, replacing the 1995 Data Protection Directive. It requires a lawful basis for processing personal data, mandates breach notification, and carries fines of up to 4% of global annual revenue.