European AI Office is established within the European Commission

The European Commission established the European Artificial Intelligence Office through a Commission Decision that it adopted on 24 January 2024.

The Decision entered into force on 21 February 2024, formally standing up the office inside the Commission.

What it is

The AI Office is a European Artificial Intelligence Office set up within the Commission as part of the administrative structure of the Directorate-General for Communication Networks, Content and Technology and subject to its annual management plan.

It was created to support the implementation and enforcement of the European Union's regulation laying down harmonised rules on artificial intelligence, the EU AI Act.

The Commission moved to set the office up ahead of the AI Act's own adoption so implementation work could start as soon as possible, following the political agreement reached by the co-legislators on 8 December 2023.

What it requires

The Decision gives the AI Office responsibility for supervision and enforcement of rules on general-purpose AI models, including large language models, regardless of their market placement.

It also directs the office to investigate possible infringements of rules on general-purpose AI models and systems, including by collecting complaints and alerts.

The office is further tasked with encouraging and facilitating the drawing up of codes of practice and codes of conduct at Union level, taking international approaches into account.

What security leaders should do

Security and compliance teams building general-purpose AI models or systems intended for the EU market should treat the AI Office as their primary point of contact for supervision, notifications and code-of-practice participation rather than relying solely on national regulators. Programs should map which of their AI systems could be classed as general-purpose AI with systemic risk, since the AI Office's investigative and evaluation tasks focus there first. Legal, product and security teams should track AI Office guidance, delegated acts and codes of practice as they are published, since the office was set up specifically to prepare and coordinate these instruments before and after the AI Act's obligations take effect.