The AI Act in one idea
What the EU is actually regulating, and what it is not. The Act does not ban AI. It regulates risk and responsibility.
A structured, practical read on Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 for businesses, legal teams and compliance functions. It translates the regulation without oversimplifying it.
Chapters 1 to 6 in sequence establish scope, definitions, risk levels, roles and enforcement. That is the foundation everything else sits on.
Each chapter stands alone with the context it needs, so you can jump straight to the one that answers today's question.
Twelve editions carry the same legal core with the examples, risks and first steps that apply to your kind of organisation.
Free to read here. The full document, formatted for print, is the download below.
What the EU is actually regulating, and what it is not. The Act does not ban AI. It regulates risk and responsibility.
Territorial scope for real businesses. Why you do not need to be in Europe, and why "we are too small" is not a test.
The legal definition in plain language, what does and does not fall inside it, and why rules-based software is not the escape hatch people think.
The four levels on one page. What prohibited really means, why most businesses misclassify themselves, and where transparency duties bite.
Provider, deployer, importer, distributor. When you silently become a provider, and why contracts alone do not save you.
How the penalty tiers are structured, why enforcement is risk-driven rather than random, and the relationship with GDPR and product liability.
Why checklists fail on their own, what regulators expect in practice, and the difference between legal and operational compliance.
Article 4 as a structural duty rather than an afterthought, and what implementation looks like for each role.
Risk, role and compliance score. The same three questions the free assessment asks, set out in full.
The governance elements regulators expect, documentation versus decision-making, and what human oversight means in reality.
Most of the confusion comes from mixing technical and legal questions. Early structure saves time, and waiting makes everything harder.
Each edition closes with the questions that come up for that kind of organisation, and what to do about them first.
Pick the edition that matches your organisation. Same legal core, different examples and first steps. You can come back for another one at any time.
Downloads need a free account, so we know who has which edition and can tell you when it changes. Pick your edition below and we will take you through registration and bring you straight back to it.
The full guide with no sector assumptions. Start here if none of the others fit.
Create an accountYou ship a product with AI in it. Why that usually makes you a provider by default.
Create an accountYou build and run AI for clients. Where your responsibility ends and theirs begins.
Create an accountYou advise on AI adoption. What you need to know before you recommend a system.
Create an accountLaw, accounting, advisory. Client confidentiality and AI in regulated practice.
Create an accountScreening, ranking and monitoring people. One of the clearest high-risk areas in Annex III.
Create an accountGenerated copy, images and video. Article 50 marking and what counts as a deep fake.
Create an accountYou built on someone else's model. Why "we just use APIs" is not an exemption.
Create an accountChatbots, generators and AI plugins on client sites. Disclosure and who carries it.
Create an accountAI used inside your own organisation. Deployer duties, oversight and staff literacy.
Create an accountTools your staff adopted without telling anyone. Finding them before an auditor does.
Create an accountYou are not established in the Union. When output-based reach pulls you in anyway.
Create an accountLa guida completa senza assunzioni di settore, in italiano.
Create an accountEach edition is a single A4 PDF, around 130 pages and roughly 2 MB, laid out to be read on screen or printed as it is. Your downloads are listed in your workspace.
The guide explains the rules. The assessment tells you which of them reach your systems.