The EU AI Act's General Purpose AI (GPAI) obligations are kicking in on August 2, 2025, and it's crucial for startups and enterprises to comply. To ensure compliance, it's essential to create comprehensive model cards that describe the architecture, training data sources, capabilities, limitations, and known risks of your AI models. This documentation will serve as a critical tool for transparency and accountability.
In addition to model cards, you'll need to publish summaries of your training datasets, including high-level source categories and filtering criteria. Disclosure of copyrighted works is mandatory, so it's vital to implement "opt-out" compliance for EU rightsholders and document copyrighted material in your training data.
Establishing a continuous risk identification and mitigation process is also necessary. This includes robustness and security testing, bias evaluation, and monitoring to ensure your AI systems are safe and reliable. By integrating compliance checks into your CI/CD pipelines, you can avoid costly retrofits and reputational damage.
The compliance timeline is critical to keep in mind. The GPAI obligations will take effect for new models on August 2, 2025, while high-risk system obligations, including embeddable metadata and watermarks for generated outputs, will come into effect in 2026. Full enforcement for legacy GPAI models is expected in 2027.
Non-compliance can result in severe penalties, including fines of up to €35 million or 7% of global turnover. However, compliance can also be a strategic advantage, demonstrating trust, safety, and transparency to customers and partners. By prioritizing compliance, you can leverage it as a differentiator in funding rounds and client pitches, ultimately driving business growth and success.
By starting small and structuring early, you can ensure compliance and set your business up for success in the EU AI landscape. Consider partnering with specialized vendors for dataset audits and using open-source model card templates to adapt to EU-specific requirements. With careful planning and execution, you can navigate the complexities of the EU AI Act and thrive in a rapidly evolving regulatory environment.
