EU Reaches Agreement to Delay and Ease AI Act Rules

EU countries and European Parliament lawmakers have reached a provisional agreement to delay and soften parts of the bloc’s AI Act, according to Politico. The deal follows overnight negotiations and marks the first major postponement of digital regulations in the European Union.

Under the agreement, rules governing high risk uses of artificial intelligence will be postponed until December 2027. The delay gives companies more time to comply with requirements such as watermarking AI generated content, which will now have a three month grace period instead of six.

The new compromise also exempts industrial applications of AI from the AI Act’s scope, allowing them to remain under existing machinery regulations. This exemption was supported by Germany to prevent overlapping obligations for companies such as Siemens and Bosch.

The deal includes a ban on AI systems that create sexualized deepfakes or unauthorized explicit images of identifiable people. These prohibitions respond to incidents involving AI tools generating intimate or abusive content. The agreement still requires formal approval by EU governments and the Parliament before it becomes law.

The European Union's AI Act initially came into force in August 2024, with a phased rollout of provisions intended to regulate high risk AI systems and protect users across member states.