Regulation
What legislators and authorities in the EU, in China, and in the USA decide on AI.
In the EU the AI Act applies step by step. In May 2026 the legislators provisionally agreed to postpone the obligations for high-risk systems. Formal adoption is still pending.
China is planning export controls for frontier models, agents, and training data for the first time. Comments can be submitted until 15 November. In the USA the Department of Justice announced a task force against the misuse of advanced AI on 6 November.
The list gives the respective status. A draft or a provisional agreement is not yet a rule in force.
- EU AI Act
- According to the provisional agreement of 7 May 2026 (Digital Omnibus), the obligations for high-risk systems under Annex III apply from 2 December 2027 instead of from 2 August 2026. For systems in regulated products under Annex I, the date is 2 August 2028. Obligations for general-purpose models and the prohibitions remain.
- EU, transparency
- Transparency obligations for deployers apply from 2 August 2026. Only the labeling obligation for providers under Article 50 (2) moves to 2 December 2026.
- China
- On 16 October 2026 the commerce and science ministries presented export controls for frontier models, agents, and training data in Announcement No. 48. Affected are models from 10²⁶ FLOP of training, from 2 trillion parameters, or among the ten best in the world. The list is a draft; comments are possible until 15 November. A registration before export already applies.
- USA
- Attorney General Todd Blanche announced a Super Intelligence Task Force on 6 November. It is to prosecute misuse of advanced AI by foreign states, criminals, and companies.
- Meta
- New terms of business that would have allowed scraping the websites of business customers are suspended indefinitely. This followed objections from publishers and regulators in Norway and Brazil.
- Headwinds after reports from 4 November of a plan to switch off search for customers who do not use AI features. Schools that restrict AI would also be affected.
A provisional agreement applies only after formal adoption. A draft can change until the final version.