Regulation (EU) 2024/1689
The EU AI Act, in plain terms.
What changes on 2 August 2026 for teams shipping software built by AI — and why governed construction turns the evidence into a byproduct.
The EU AI Act is the world's first comprehensive law on artificial intelligence. It entered into force in 2024 and applies in phases. For most teams building and deploying AI-driven software, the date that matters is 2 August 2026, when the bulk of its obligations — including transparency and record-keeping — start to apply.
What it regulates
A risk-based framework: the higher the risk of an AI system, the stronger the obligations. It binds both providers and deployers, applies extraterritorially — any system placed on the EU market or affecting people in the EU — and carries fines of up to €35M or 7% of global annual turnover.
The timeline that matters
In force August 2024 · prohibited practices February 2025 · obligations for general-purpose AI models August 2025 · the main body of obligations, including high-risk requirements and transparency, 2 August 2026 · remaining high-risk product categories August 2027.
Article 12 — record-keeping
High-risk AI systems must automatically record events (logs) across their lifetime, so their operation stays traceable and auditable. In practice: you must be able to show what happened, when, and why — long after the fact.
Article 50 — transparency
People must be told when they are interacting with an AI system, and certain AI-generated content must be marked as such. Deployers carry concrete disclosure obligations.
Why this is hard for agent-built software
When AI agents write and change code, the decision behind each change, the evidence that it is safe, and the chain of approval are scattered across tools — or never captured at all. Reconstructing them later, for an auditor or a regulator, is expensive and often impossible.
How RootBlocks helps
RootBlocks governs the plane where agentic construction happens. Every decision is recorded, every merge emits signed evidence, and the logs and transparency artifacts come out as a byproduct of shipping — not as a separate compliance project. Article 12 logging and Article 50 transparency, by construction.
Note: This page is an informational summary, not legal advice. For your specific obligations, consult the official text of Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 and qualified counsel.