Signal EU AI Act — Phased Application, 'AI Omnibus' Simplification and New Prohibitions

Summary

The EU AI Act entered into force on 1 August 2024, with prohibited AI practices and AI literacy obligations becoming active from 2 February 2025, and governance rules plus general-purpose AI model obligations applying from 2 August 2025. Nine categories of AI practice are banned, including harmful manipulation, social scoring, untargeted scraping for facial recognition databases, workplace emotion recognition, and real-time remote biometric identification in public spaces by law enforcement; the ban on AI-generated non-consensual intimate imagery and child sexual abuse material takes effect 2 December 2026. High-risk AI obligations covering conformity assessment, quality management and EU database registration, originally due on 2 August 2026, were deferred: sensitive-area systems under Annex III must comply from 2 December 2027 and regulated-product-embedded systems under Annex I from 2 August 2028. The AI Omnibus simplification package, proposed 19 November 2025, agreed 7 May 2026 and in force since 27 July 2026 (Regulation (EU) 2026/1744), extends simplified requirements to small mid-cap companies, expands regulatory sandbox access including an EU-level sandbox, and reinforces AI Office oversight powers. As of May 2026 the United States has no federal AI statute, relying instead on the executive order Ensuring a National Policy Framework for AI, signed 11 December 2025.