The AI Act distinguishes several categories of AI systems, each giving rise to specific legal obligations.
At the top of this hierarchy are systems presenting an unacceptable risk: these uses, such as social scoring, behavioral manipulation, or certain real-time facial recognition systems, are strictly prohibited on the European Union market in order to prevent serious harm to fundamental rights.
This therefore results in a prohibition on placing on the market (the moment when the product is made available for sale/distribution, whether or not it is used immediately) or putting into service (the point at which an AI system begins operating in a use environment) AI systems that run counter to EU values and infringe fundamental rights, and that fall within one of the cases listed in Article 5 of the AI Act:
Uses subliminal, manipulative, or deceptive techniques intended to materially distort a person’s behavior in a manner that causes them to take a decision they would not otherwise have taken, causing harm.
Exploits vulnerabilities related to a person’s age, disability, or social/economic situation, with a substantial effect on their behavior, resulting in significant harm to that person or to another person.
Evaluates or classifies people based on their social behavior (so-called “social scoring”) or on personal characteristics (known or inferred), leading to detrimental or unfavorable treatment.
Assesses the risk that a person will commit a criminal offense solely on the basis of profiling personality traits or personal characteristics.
Creates or expands facial recognition databases through untargeted scraping of images from the internet or CCTV footage.
Infers a person’s emotions in the workplace or in an educational institution (except for medical or safety reasons).
Uses biometric categorization systems to individually classify people and infer their race, political opinions, religious/philosophical beliefs, sex life, or sexual orientation, unless there is an objective technical justification.
Uses a remote biometric identification system in real time in publicly accessible spaces for law-enforcement purposes.