The AI Act is the European Union regulation on artificial intelligence, adopted in 2024, which governs placing AI systems on the market and using them according to the level of risk they present. It applies to any organization that provides or uses an AI system in the EU, regardless of its country of origin.
It distinguishes several levels:
- prohibited practices, such as social scoring or certain forms of manipulation;
- high-risk systems (recruitment, education, credit, critical infrastructure, etc.), subject to documentation, human oversight and data quality obligations;
- limited risk, with transparency obligations (disclosing that users are talking to an AI, labeling generated content);
- minimal risk, with no specific obligation.
General-purpose AI models, such as LLMs, have their own obligations. Application is phased in over several years, and fines can be calculated as a percentage of worldwide revenue.
Why it matters when hiring
The AI Act creates demand for hybrid profiles: lawyers and compliance leads who understand the technology, and engineers able to document and audit an AI system. A point for every employer: AI tools used to screen or assess candidates fall into the high-risk category. In interviews, a real expert can say which category a concrete case falls into, not just recite the levels.