Europe's AI Act gets real

Europe's landmark AI law has moved from an idea to enforcement. A major enforcement deadline arrived August 2. Most notably, new transparency and disclosure requirements are in effect for chatbots and AI-generated content. Europe's AI Office has not gone after any companies covered under the law for misconduct yet, but it can now request information from companies or ask for access to models. "This is a messy piece of legislation," said Patrick Van Eecke, a partner at Cooley in Brussels who advises companies on AI Act compliance. He said August 2 marked the point when ordinary users may start to encounter the impacts of the act through being notified they are seeing AI-generated material.