Commission ‘still assessing’ delay to AI Act rollout

BRUSSELS — The European Commission is “still assessing” a delay in the implementation of the Artificial Intelligence Act, the head of the EU executive’s AI Office Lucilla Sioli told a POLITICO event today.

Some EU countries have been pushing to delay the implementation of the landmark regulation, fearing that it would slow down the bloc’s innovation and competitiveness.

The possible delay would be particularly for the rules on high-risk systems, Sioli told POLITICO’s Competitive Europe Summit in Brussels.

These systems need a set of standards to be compliant with the regulation. But there has been a “little delay” in developing these standards, Sioli acknowledged, so the Commission is in discussions with the standardization organizations on the exact timing of the standards and whether a delay is necessary.

“It’s not about pausing the whole AI Act, it’s about checking if and when the standards can be delivered and to organize ourselves around that,” she said.

Sioli declined to quantify what possibility there is in a delay, merely saying the Commission is “still assessing.”