Regulation & Law Glossary
EU AI Act obligations, roles, conformity requirements, and regulatory processes.
AI Act Article 3
The section of the EU AI Act that defines what specific words and phrases mean in law, so everyone reads the rules the same way.
AI literacy
The ability to understand what AI is, how it works at a practical level, and how to use it responsibly, required by the EU AI Act for staff deploying or overseeing AI.
AI regulatory sandbox
A safe testing space set up by regulators where AI companies can experiment with new AI systems under official supervision without immediately needing full compliance.
Annex IV technical documentation
The detailed checklist in the EU AI Act that tells providers exactly what information their technical documentation must contain.
Authorized representative
An EU-based contact person or company formally appointed by a non-EU AI provider to handle its legal responsibilities inside the EU.
CE marking
The EU stamp of approval that a high-risk AI product carries to show it has passed all required safety and compliance checks.
Deployer
A business or organisation that puts an AI system to work in its operations, buying or licensing it from a provider and using it on real users or processes.
Distributor
A company in the EU that passes an AI product along the supply chain to customers without changing it, like a reseller or marketplace.
EU AI Act
A set of EU laws that decides how AI products must be built and used, with stricter rules for AI that could cause serious harm.
Fundamental rights impact assessment
A formal check that public-sector organisations must complete to understand whether using a high-risk AI system could harm people's legal rights, and to document how they will address any risks.
General-purpose AI model
A large AI model, like the ones behind chatbots or image generators, that is versatile enough to be used in many different applications and products.
GPAI model with systemic risk
The most powerful general-purpose AI models, those large enough or capable enough to potentially affect critical systems across society, which face the strictest rules under the EU AI Act.
Harmonized standard
An official European technical standard that, if followed, is accepted as proof that an AI product meets the relevant EU law.
Importer
An EU-based company or person that brings an AI product made by a non-EU company into the European market.
Notified body
An independent expert organisation approved by an EU government to inspect and certify that high-risk AI systems meet legal requirements.
Post-market monitoring
Ongoing tracking and review of how an AI system performs in the real world after it has been released, to catch problems early.
Presumption of conformity
A legal shortcut: if you follow the approved technical standard, regulators assume your AI product meets the law without you needing to prove each requirement individually.
Prohibited AI practice
Uses of AI that the EU has made completely illegal because they are considered too dangerous or unethical to allow under any circumstances.
Provider
The company or person that builds and releases an AI system or model, taking legal responsibility for its compliance with AI regulations.
Serious incident
A significant failure of a high-risk AI system that causes real harm to people or critical services, which must be reported to regulators.
Technical documentation
The full paper trail a provider must keep, design records, testing results, risk assessments, that proves their high-risk AI system meets EU law.
Transparency obligation
A legal requirement to tell people when they are talking to or being assessed by an AI system rather than a human.