Governance

GPAI (General Purpose AI)

Definition

General Purpose AI models—such as large language models—that can be adapted to a wide range of tasks. Under the EU AI Act, GPAI providers must publish technical documentation, comply with copyright law, and publish summaries of training data. GPAI models with systemic risk face additional requirements.

Related Terms

Foundation Model

A large AI model trained on broad data at scale that can be adapted to a wide range of downstream tasks through fine-tuning or prompting. GPT-4, Claude, and Gemini are examples; under the EU AI Act, providers of GPAI models face specific transparency obligations.

EU AI Act

The world's first comprehensive AI regulation, adopted by the European Union in 2024 and phasing in through 2027–2028 (prohibitions from February 2025, GPAI obligations from August 2025, stand-alone high-risk systems from 2 December 2027, and high-risk AI embedded in regulated products from 2 August 2028). It classifies AI systems by risk level—unacceptable, high, limited, and minimal—and imposes obligations proportionate to risk, from outright bans to conformity assessments and transparency requirements.

AI Transparency

The principle that AI systems, their capabilities, limitations, and decision-making processes should be understandable to affected users, deployers, and regulators. The EU AI Act mandates transparency obligations at multiple risk tiers, from simple chatbot disclosure to full technical documentation for high-risk systems.

Related Services

Eu Ai Act Compliance

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