Europe Has Put Its AI Act Into Effect: What It Means for You

Europe's new AI Act went into effect Thursday, regulating the type of artificial intelligence that tech companies can deploy, and calling for those companies to be transparent with users.

The new law, which was approved in draft form last year, is likely to make waves in the fast-moving world of AI technology. In the lead-up to this week's implementation of the law, companies including Apple and Meta have changed plans regarding AI technologies they'll introduce in other regions, including the US. At the time of last year's draft, 150 tech executives from companies including Airbus, ARM and Meta argued against the law change in an open letter.

How will the law affect users?

The act says tech companies must ensure that AI systems introduced in Europe are safe, transparent, nondiscriminatory, traceable and environmentally friendly. The act ranks AI dangers as unacceptable risk, high risk, limited risk or acceptable risk, but it asks that even AI technologies that don't fall in the first two categories adhere to transparency requirements and EU copyright law. Companies that violate the act could be fined as much as 7% of their annual revenues or 35 million euros (about $37.7 million). 

Users in Europe will be more affected by this law than people in the US will be. Products that might be introduced in the states and in other non-EU regions will likely be delayed, tweaked or not rolled out at all. But it's not yet clear how US users will be impacted if, for instance, they're doing business in Europe and using some of those AI technologies as part of their job. 

It's unclear whether a non-EU user who's traveling and using some of these AI technologies would be able to access them in EU countries, especially if they must rely on servers in nations where the tech is outlawed or otherwise limited.

It could mean longer development times for tech such as Apple's AI platform Apple Intelligence, as the company figures out ways to introduce different versions of its software for different regions. It already appears that Apple's timeline is shifting for Apple Intelligence.

More significantly for US tech users, the European law could serve as a framework for regulations in the United States, by the federal government or by individual states, something big US tech companies may very well lobby against.