The European Union's comprehensive framework for regulating artificial intelligence.
The EU AI Act (Regulation 2024/1689) is the world's first comprehensive legal framework for artificial intelligence, entering into force in August 2024 with a phased implementation timeline. It establishes a risk-based regulatory approach classifying AI systems into four tiers: Unacceptable Risk (prohibited), High Risk (regulated), Limited Risk (transparency obligations), and Minimal Risk (no specific requirements).
High-risk AI systems — including AI used in critical infrastructure, education, employment, biometrics, law enforcement, and justice — face the most substantial documentation requirements. Providers must maintain technical documentation demonstrating compliance with requirements covering risk management systems, data governance, technical robustness, transparency, human oversight, accuracy, and cybersecurity. Documentation must be maintained for 10 years post-market and be made available to national competent authorities on request.
Documented risk management system covering identification, analysis, estimation, and mitigation of AI system risks.
Training, validation, and testing data documentation covering relevance, representativeness, and bias considerations.
Technical documentation demonstrating compliance: system description, capabilities, limitations, performance metrics.
Automatic event logging documentation ensuring system traceability and post-deployment monitoring.
User-facing documentation: instructions for use, capabilities, limitations, and human oversight guidance.
Human oversight implementation documentation and human-AI interface design records.
Templates and implementation resources for EU AI Act 2024/1689 are available through the ELDR Institute Knowledge Hub and via direct request.