On 25 September 2024, the European Commission announced that over 100 companies have signed the EU Artificial Intelligence (AI) Pact, committing to voluntary pledges to promote trustworthy and safe AI development ahead of the AI Act's full application. The signatories include multinational corporations and European SMEs across sectors like IT, healthcare, banking, and automotive.

The pact requires companies to focus on three main areas:

• Developing an AI governance strategy for future AI Act compliance;
• Identifying high-risk AI systems;
• Promoting AI literacy and ethical practices among staff.

Over half of the companies also pledged additional commitments, such as ensuring human oversight, mitigating risks, and transparently labeling AI-generated content such as deepfakes.

In parallel, the Commission has launched initiatives to strengthen EU leadership in AI innovation, including the AI Factories initiative to support start-ups and industries with resources like data and computing power. The initiative aims to advance AI applications in critical sectors such as healthcare, energy, and aerospace. Additional measures include venture capital support, the GenAI4EU initiative, and the establishment of a European AI Research Council.

The AI Act, which took effect on 1 August 2024, will become fully applicable in two years, with phased implementation of its provisions, including prohibitions and rules for general-purpose and embedded AI systems (→eucrim 2/2024, 92-93).