EU AI Act System Classification

The EU AI Act classifies AI systems into four categories: Unacceptable risk (Article 5) — prohibited practices such as social scoring, manipulative techniques, and real-time remote biometric identification in public spaces. High risk (Article 6) — systems in regulated products (Annex I) or in eight sensitive areas (Annex III) such as biometrics, critical infrastructure, employment, or law enforcement. Limited risk (Article 50) — systems with transparency obligations, such as chatbots or deepfake generators. Minimal risk — all other systems without special regulatory requirements.

Article 6 defines two pathways: First, systems integrated as safety components in products under Annex I — e.g., medical devices, machinery, or lifts. These require third-party conformity assessment. Second, standalone systems in the eight areas of Annex III — from biometrics through HR management to administration of justice. An Annex III system can be exempted from high-risk classification if it does not pose a significant risk to health, safety, or fundamental rights (Article 6(3)).

Annex III lists eight high-risk areas: 1) Biometrics — remote identification and emotion recognition. 2) Critical infrastructure — transport, energy, water, digital networks. 3) Education and vocational training — exam assessment and access decisions. 4) Employment — recruitment, performance evaluation, task allocation. 5) Access to services — creditworthiness, insurance, emergency services. 6) Law enforcement — evidence evaluation, risk analysis. 7) Migration and border control — document verification, risk assessment. 8) Administration of justice and democratic processes.

An Annex III system is not high-risk if it does not pose a significant risk. Four criteria support the exception: The system performs a narrow procedural task. It only improves the result of a completed human activity. It detects patterns without replacing human assessment. Or it serves only to prepare an assessment. Important: Profiling systems are always high-risk — the exception never applies to them. The provider must document the assessment before placing the system on the market.

Five steps: 1) Check whether the system falls under the prohibitions of Article 5 (social scoring, manipulative AI, mass biometric surveillance). 2) Check whether it is a safety component in a product under Annex I. 3) Check whether the use case falls under one of the 8 Annex III areas. 4) If yes, examine the exception criteria under Article 6(3). 5) Check transparency obligations under Article 50 for limited-risk systems. Document every step — the authority can request the assessment.

High-risk systems must meet the following requirements: risk management system (Article 9), data governance for training and test data (Article 10), technical documentation (Article 11), automatic logging (Article 12), transparency and user information (Article 13), human oversight (Article 14), accuracy, robustness, and cybersecurity (Article 15). Additionally: quality management system (Article 17), EU declaration of conformity (Article 47), and conformity assessment before placing on the market.

General purpose AI models (GPAI) fall under Chapter V of the EU AI Act — a separate regulatory regime alongside the four-level classification. Obligations: technical documentation, transparency towards downstream providers, copyright compliance, and a summary of training data. GPAI models with systemic risk (from 10^25 FLOPS) must additionally conduct model evaluations, adversarial testing, and cybersecurity measures. GPAI obligations apply from August 2025.