In July 2025, the European Commission has published guidelines to assist providers of general-purpose AI models in meeting the AI Act's obligations kicking in on 2 August 2025. The guidelines clarify these obligations, providing legal certainty for all actors across the AI value chain, and complement the General-Purpose AI Code of Practice.
Henna Virkkunen, Executive Vice-President for Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy, said: “With today's guidelines, the Commission supports the smooth and effective application of the AI Act. 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.
More information is available online, including questions and answers.