The European Union's Artificial Intelligence Act (the EU AI Act) is the first comprehensive artificial intelligence (AI) regulation to address AI technologies across the globe. The EU AI Act was proposed in April 2021 and published in the Official Journal of the European Union (EU) on July 12, 2024. The EU AI Act officially entered into force on August 1, 2024.  The regulation has adopted a phased timeline for implementation, with the below key dates for compliance:

• November 2, 2024: Deadline for EU Member States (Member States) to identify and publicly list the authorities/bodies responsible for fundamental rights protection, and to notify the European Commission and other Member States.
• February 2, 2025: Prohibitions on certain high-risk AI systems begin. These systems include: Manipulative AI, Exploitative AI, Predictive Policing, Social Scoring, Facial Recognition Databases, Biometric Categorization, Emotion Inference, and Real-Time Biometric Identification. The requirements on AI literacy also start to apply on this date.  Providers and deployers of AI systems must ensure sufficient “AI literacy” among their staff and operators. 
• July 10, 2025: The European Commission published the much anticipated and negotiated General-Purpose AI (GPAI) Code of Practice along with FAQs, after the original May 2, 2025 publication date was postponed by over a year due to industry and stakeholder feedback. 
• August 2, 2025: GPAI governance rules and obligations that apply to GPAI models on the market after this date come into force.
• February, 2, 2026: The European Commission should issue guidelines specifying how to comply with the provisions on high-risk AI systems, including practical examples of high-risk versus non-high-risk systems.
• August 2, 2026: The majority of the remainder of the EU AI Act’s requirements become fully enforceable. This includes the following high-risk AI systems specifically listed in Annex III: AI systems in biometrics, critical infrastructure, education, employment, access to essential public services, law enforcement, immigration and administration of justice.
• August 2, 2027: The EU AI Act applies to all risk categories and all AI systems. This includes high-risk AI systems listed in Annex I and high-risk AI systems that are not prescribed in Annex III but are intended to be used as a safety component of a product, or the AI is itself a product, and the product is required to undergo a third-party conformity assessment under existing specific EU laws, for example toys, radio equipment, in vitro diagnostic medical devices, civil aviation security and agricultural vehicles.
• 2030: Obligations go into effect for certain AI systems that are components of the large-scale IT systems established by EU law in the areas of freedom, security and justice, such as the Schengen Information System.

Notably, the European Commission ‘s publication of the GPAI Code of Practice and FAQs on July 10, 2025, indicates its unwavering stance to push forward compliance with its timeline for implementing the EU AI Act. The GPAI Code of Practice is now under assessment by the Member States and the European Commission. Once endorsed, organizations will only have a small window before the August 2, 2025 compliance obligations go into effect. The European Commission has published Guidelines related to GPAI models. Furthermore, the AI Office has provided an outline of the template to be used by GPAI providers and the AI Office will also publish a final template that GPAI providers must use.