General FAQ
The General-Purpose AI Code of Practice is a voluntary tool, prepared by independent experts in a multi-stakeholder process, designed to help industry comply with the AI Act’s obligations for providers of general-purpose AI models, ensuring that general-purpose AI models placed on the European market are safe and transparent, including the most powerful ones.
It outlines a way for providers of general-purpose AI models and of general-purpose AI models with systemic risk to demonstrate compliance with the AI Act’s relevant obligations.
The Code has three chapters: Transparency and Copyright, both addressing all providers of general-purpose AI models, and Safety and Security, relevant only to a limited number of providers of the most advanced models, subject to the AI Act's obligations for providers of general-purpose AI models with systemic risk.
The AI Act defines systemic risk as specific to high-impact capabilities, i.e. capabilities that match or exceed the capabilities of the most advanced general-purpose AI models, that have a significant impact on the Union market. The AI Act currently presumes that models trained with a cumulative amount of compute greater than 10^25 floating-point operations possess high-impact capabilities.
The Code was developed through an extensive multi-stakeholder process launched in July 2024, involving over 1 400 participants from industry, academia, civil society, rightsholders, and EU Member States represented in the AI Board.
Thirteen independent experts appointed by the AI Office led the drafting process. They developed the Code through three rounds of consultations, incorporating over 1 600 written submissions and feedback from 40 workshops.
All providers of general-purpose AI models with existing or planned operations in the EU market will be invited to adhere to the Code, with the AI Office providing details on the process soon.
Adhering to a Code assessed as adequate by the AI Office and the Board will offer a simple and transparent way to demonstrate compliance with the AI Act. This offers a streamlined compliance process, with enforcement focused on monitoring their adherence to the Code, resulting in greater predictability and reduced administrative burden.
The Code does not impose obligations. It serves as guidance to help providers meet their existing obligations under the AI Act without creating new ones, extending existing ones, or imposing additional burdens. It serves as a voluntary tool that helps providers demonstrate compliance with the AI Act's binding provisions, without exceeding its scope or imposing additional burdens.
After the publication, Member States and the Commission will assess the adequacy of the Code.
The Commission will complement the Code with the guidelines on general-purpose AI models, which will be published ahead of the entry into application of the rules for providers of general-purpose AI models. The guidelines will clarify, for example, who is in and out of scope of the AI Act’s obligations for providers of general-purpose AI models.
From 2 August 2025 onwards, providers placing general-purpose AI models on the market must comply with their respective AI Act obligations. Providers must notify the AI Office of general-purpose AI models with systemic risk to be placed on the EU market without delay. In the first year from 2 August 2025 onwards, the AI Office will offer to collaborate closely in particular with providers who adhere to the Code to ensure that models can continue to be placed on the EU market without delays. In particular, if these providers do not fully implement all commitments immediately after signing the Code, the AI Office will not consider them to have broken their commitments under the Code and will not reproach them for violating the AI Act. Instead, in such cases, the AI Office will consider them to act in good faith and will be ready to collaborate to find ways to ensure full compliance. However, from 2 August 2026 onwards, the Commission will enforce full compliance with all obligations for providers of general-purpose AI models with fines.
Models placed on the market before 2 August 2025 must comply with the AI Act obligations by 2 August 2027.
The Chairs and Vice-Chairs have written the Code to be as future-proof as possible. However, the rapid evolution of AI technology poses a challenge. Even with the future-proof design, the Code will still require periodic updates.
The AI Office may facilitate formal updates to the Code in response to technological developments, changes in the risk landscape, or experience with the application of the AI Act rules. The AI Office will review the Code at least every two years, and it may propose a streamlined process for reviews and updates as needed.
The Commission guidelines on general-purpose AI models will provide clarity on the scope of obligations for providers.
A public consultation in April and May collected stakeholder input on key concepts. Using feedback from providers, experts, and other stakeholders, the AI Office is finalising the guidelines, which will be published before the general-purpose AI obligations’ entry into application. The guidelines will clarify three key points:
- When a model is a general-purpose AI model
- When a model is a general-purpose AI model with systemic risk
- Who is considered the provider of such a model
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The code of practice helps industry comply with the AI Act legal obligations on safety, transparency and copyright of general-purpose AI models.