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AI Act

About the AI Act

Full name: Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 June 2024 laying down harmonised rules on artificial intelligence and amending Regulations (EC) No 300/2008, (EU) No 167/2013, (EU) No 168/2013, (EU) 2018/858, (EU) 2018/1139 and (EU) 2019/2144 and Directives 2014/90/EU, (EU) 2016/797 and (EU) 2020/1828 (Artificial Intelligence Act)

(Link to original text)

Type: Regulation

Objective and key elements:

  • First ever attempt to create horizontal rules regarding AI
  • Aiming to:
    • protect fundamental rights,
    • enhance the positive aspects of AI, and
    • ensure free movement of AI systems
  • Applies to AI Systems and General Purpose AI
  • Includes a risk-based approach depending on AI purposes (and risk levels divided in categories “unacceptable risk”, “high risk”, “limited risk”, and “minimal risk”)

Relevant to: Developers and users of AI systems and General Purpose AI.

Status: In force. Application has mostly started on 2 August 2026 or earlier. However, the timeline of application has been partly amended by the Digital omnibus on AI, see further below.

Digital omnibus on AI:

Full name: Regulation (EU) 2026/1744 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 8 July 2026 amending Regulations (EU) 2024/1689, (EU) 2018/1139 and (EU) 2023/1230 as regards the simplification of the implementation of harmonised rules on artificial intelligence (Digital Omnibus on AI)

(Link to original text)

Type: Regulation

Objective and key elements:

  • Provides a targeted simplification of the AI Act, for example by:
    • Reducing administrative burdens and extending simplified legal obligations originally for SMEs also to small and mid-cap companies
    • Amending the timeline of application of the rules for high-risk AI to match the availability of support tools like standards
    • Reducing the registration burden for AI systems used in areas of high-risk but for tasks not considered to be high-risk
    • Offering companies more widely the space to develop and test AI systems through regulatory sandboxes
    • Enabling the use of special categories of personal data to detect and correct bias

Status: In force.

Next steps:

The application of certain provisions of the AI Act has been pushed back:

  • Rules for high-risk AI systems as set out in Annex III of the AI Act (e.g. biometrics, critical infrastructure, education, HR) will apply from 2 December 2027 instead of the initial 2 August 2026
  • Rules for high-risk AI systems as regulated products (AI systems used as a safety component of a product or AI systems that are by themselves a product, covered by EU product safety regulations set out in Annex I of the AI Act) will apply from 2 August 2028 instead of the initial 2 August 2027
  • Transparency obligations for providers of AI systems generating synthetic audio, image, video or text content and placed on the market before 2 August 2026 will apply from 2 December 2026 instead of the initial 2 August 2026

Documents (newest on top):

  • Draft Commission guidelines on the classification of high-risk AI systems under Article 6 of Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 (AI Act) are available here
  • Commission Guidelines on the implementation of the transparency obligations for certain AI systems under Article 50 of Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 (the ‘AI Act’) are available here
  • Commission Guidelines on the scope of the obligations for providers of general-purpose AI models established by Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 (AI Act) are available here
  • Draft guidance Article 73 AI Act – Incident reporting (high-risk AI systems) and Incident Report for Serious Incidents under the AI Act (High-risk AI systems) are available here
  • Commission Guidelines on the definition of an artificial intelligence system established by Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 (AI Act) are available here
  • Commission Guidelines on prohibited artificial intelligence practices established by Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 (AI Act) are available here
  • Commission implementing decision of 23.6.2025 on a standardisation request to the European Committee for Standardisation and the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardisation as regards high-risk AI systems in support of Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 of the European Parliament and of the Council and repealing Implementing Decision C(2023)3215 is available here

Earlier versions:

  • Corrigendum (text adopted by the Parliament) published on 19 April 2024 is available here
  • Parliament’s adopted negotiation position mandate (compromise text) is available here
    • Updated with inter alia tailor-made regimes for general-purpose AI and foundation models (like ChatGPT). Read more here
  • General approach by the Council published 6 December 2022 is available here
  • The proposal of the Commission published 21 April 2021 is available here

Hannes Snellman blog posts:

Guidance:

(Last updated 16 October 2026)

Implemented in Finland as:

  • Laki eräiden tekoälyjärjestelmien valvonnasta
  • Laki eräiden tuotteiden markkinavalvonnasta annetun lain 1 ja 4 §:n muuttamisesta
  • Laki sakon täytäntöönpanosta annetun lain 1 §:n muuttamisesta
  • Laki Finanssivalvonnasta annetun lain muuttamisesta
  • Laki Energiavirastosta annetun lain 1 §:n muuttamisesta

Status:

  • The national implementation of the AI Act in Finland is divided into two phases.
  • The first phase of national implementation has been completed, and the legislation has entered into force on 1 January 2026.
  • The second phase of national implementation is ongoing in the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment. More information about the project is available here (only in Finnish).
  • The draft Government Proposal was circulated for comments until 2 June 2025. The draft Government Proposal is available here (only in Finnish).
  • The Government Proposal is estimated to be published in October 2026.

Competent authority: The national implementation of the AI Act provides multiple competent authorities.

Supervision of AI systems is integrated into the market surveillance system and includes sectoral independent market surveillance authorities:

  • Finnish Safety and Chemicals Agency (Tukes)
  • Customs
  • Transport and Communications Agency (Traficom)
  • Finnish Supervisory Authority
  • The Finnish Medicines Agency (Fimea)
  • Energy Authority
  • Office of the Data Protection Ombudsman
  • Financial Supervisory Authority

Authorities protecting fundamental rights, as set out in the AI Act:

  • Office of the Data Protection Ombudsman
  • Non-discrimination Ombudsman
  • Ombudsman for Equality
  • The National Non-Discrimination and Equality Tribunal of Finland
  • The Chancellor of Justice
  • The Parliamentary Ombudsman of Finland
  • Occupational Safety and Health Administration
  • Consumer Ombudsman

(Last updated 16 October 2026)