Stage 1 · Lesson 2 of 8
The EU AI Act: risk tiers and prohibited practices
The (Regulation (EU) 2024/1689) sorts AI by risk. Unacceptable-risk practices are banned: for example social scoring, untargeted scraping of facial images, emotion recognition at work or school, and predicting crime from profiling alone.
A 2026 amendment added AI that generates non-consensual intimate imagery or child sexual abuse material. High-risk systems, such as those used in hiring, education, credit, critical infrastructure and some biometrics, must meet strict requirements: risk management, data governance, documentation, logging, transparency, human oversight, accuracy and security.
Transparency-risk systems, such as chatbots and generated content, must disclose that AI is involved. Everything else is . The Act applies to companies outside the EU when their AI is used in the EU.
Common trapassuming all AI is high-risk, or that none of yours is.
A question to check yourself, an AI practice session and 3 cheat sheet entries come with the full roadmap. Unlock
Resources for this stage
Start with· follow one of these
- CoursePaidGrokking Modern AI Fundamentals
Design Gurus · Beginner · $72 one-time
How modern AI systems are built and where they fail, so the rules make sense in practice
- CourseFreeEthics of AI (University of Helsinki)
University of Helsinki · Beginner
A free university course on accountability, transparency, fairness and harm, the ideas every framework builds on
Practise
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Also worth your time
A clear example of the voluntary, principles-first approach many governments outside Europe have taken
- OECD AI PrinciplesGo deeper
The five principles that many national AI policies borrow