The European Commission has published guidelines intended to assist providers of general-purpose AI models in meeting obligations of the EU’s AI Act which kick in on 2 August 2025.
The guidelines are aimed at clarifying these obligations, providing legal certainty for all actors across the AI value chain, and complement the General-Purpose AI Code of Practice.
“With today’s guidelines, the Commission supports the smooth and effective application of the AI Act,” said EC vice-president Henna Virkkunen: “By providing legal certainty on the scope of the AI Act obligations for general-purpose AI providers, we are helping AI actors, from start-ups to major developers, to innovate with confidence, while ensuring their models are safe, transparent, and aligned with European values.”
The guidelines define general-purpose AI models as those trained with computational resources exceeding 1023floating point operations and capable of generating language (text or audio), text-to-image or text-to-video. They outline what constitutes a ‘provider’ and ‘placing on the market’, and clarify exemptions for models released under a free and open-source license that meet transparency conditions. The guidelines also explain the implications of adhering to the General-Purpose AI Code of Practice and outline Commission’s expectations for compliance.
Finally, the guidelines clarify specific obligations for providers of the most advanced or impactful general-purpose AI models, particularly those posing systemic risks, such as risks to fundamental rights, safety, and potential loss of control over model, who must assess and mitigate these risks.
The AI Act obligations for providers of general-purpose AI models enter into application on 2 August 2025. From that date onwards, providers placing general-purpose AI models on the market must comply with their respective AI Act obligations. Providers of general-purpose AI models that will be classified as general-purpose AI models with systemic risk must notify the AI Office without delay. In the first year after entry into application of these obligations, the AI Office will work closely with providers, in particular those who adhere to the General-Purpose AI Code of Practice, to help them comply with the rules. From 2 August 2026, the Commission’s enforcement powers enter into application.
Providers of general-purpose AI models already on the market before 2 August 2025 must comply with the relevant obligations under the AI Act by 2 August 2027.
Guidelines on the scope of obligations for providers of general-purpose AI models under the AI Act
