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  • PRESS RELEASE
  • Publication 18 July 2025

Commission publishes guidelines for providers of general-purpose AI models

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.

A person interacts with a smartphone displaying an "AI" icon, surrounded by other digital icons representing various business and educational concepts, all floating above a laptop keyboard.

AdobeStock © Cholticha Kranjumnong

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 10^23 floating 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.   

Download the guidelines. Find more information and check the questions and answers.