EU AI Act: what general-purpose AI model providers must do

The EU Artificial Intelligence Act is the first horizontal law on AI adopted by a major economy. Rather than switching on all at once, it applies in stages, and one of those stages concerns the companies that build general-purpose AI models — the large models that power chatbots, coding assistants and many other products.

What providers must provide

Providers of general-purpose AI models must keep technical documentation for authorities and downstream developers, publish a sufficiently detailed summary of the content used for training, and put in place a policy to comply with EU copyright law.

Models with systemic risk

The most capable models are classified as presenting systemic risk. Their providers carry additional duties, including model evaluations, risk mitigation, serious-incident reporting and cybersecurity protection.

Why it matters outside Europe

The obligations apply to any provider placing a model on the EU market, wherever the company is based. In practice, this makes the AI Act a reference point for global AI vendors.