(EU) Artificial Intelligence Act

The (EU) Artificial Intelligence Act or “AI Act” entered into force in August 2024, laying down harmonised rules for trustworthy AI across the EU. The regulation is directly applicable in all Member States and is being implemented on a phased basis.

The purpose of the AI Act is to regulate the development, sale and use of AI systems in the EU with a view to providing, amongst other things, a high level of protection to people’s health, safety and fundamental rights, and promoting the adoption of human-centric, trustworthy AI.

The AI Act:

provides a harmonised regulatory framework for AI systems placed on the market, or deployed, in the EU.
is a horizontal regulation which takes a risk-based approach across unacceptable, high, limited and minimal risk.
regulates and sets out rules for both deployers (users) and providers (developers) of AI systems.

Our role

Per S.I. No. 405/2026, Coimisiún na Meán is one of 15 Market Surveillance Authorities designated in Ireland to supervise compliance with the AI Act.

Further to this designation, Coimisiún na Meán will supervise the compliance of certain categories of providers with their obligations under the AI Act, relating to prohibited practices as set out in Articles 5(1)(a) and 5(1)(b) of the AI Act and transparency obligations as set out Article 50 of the AI Act, including:

Intermediary services;
Audiovisual media services;
Sound broadcasting services;
Relevant online services designated under section 139E of the Broadcasting Act 2009; and
Hosting services.

Coimisiún na Meán has also been identified as a Fundamental Rights Authority (FRA) for the purposes of Article 77 of the AI Act.

Under the AI Act, each Member State is required to identify public authorities or bodies which supervise or enforce obligations under EU law that protect fundamental rights in relation to high-risk use of AI systems identified in Annex III of the AI Act.

These are bodies which already have a direct mandate under national law to supervise or enforce European Union law protecting fundamental rights. Article 77 of the AI Act confers on those bodies the power to request and access documentation created under the AI Act, when that documentation is necessary for fulfilling their existing mandates.

Other competent authorities

The AI Act is supervised in Ireland through a network of designated competent authorities across different sectors.

These include:

Central Bank of Ireland
Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg)
Commission for Railway Regulation
Commission for Regulation of Utilities
Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC)
Data Protection Commission (DPC)
Health and Safety Authority (HSA)
Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA)
Health Services Executive (HSE)
Marine Survey Office of the Department of Transport
Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment
Minister for Transport
National Transport Authority (NTA)
Workplace Relations Commission (WRC)

A national coordinating function has been established (in line with Article 70 of the AI Act), and the National AI Office acts as the central coordinating authority at national level.

At EU level, the (European) AI Office was established within the European Commission to support the EU approach to enabling the future development, deployment and use of AI in a way that fosters societal and economic benefits and innovation, while mitigating risks. It will play a key role in implementing the AI Act, especially for general-purpose AI models.

Pursuant to Article 75(1) of the AI Act, where an AI system is based on a general-purpose AI model, and the model and the system are developed by the same provider, the (European) AI Office has powers to directly monitor and supervise compliance of that AI system with the obligations arising under the AI Act.

Explaining AI systems and obligations

What is an AI system?

AI system means a machine-based system that is designed to operate with varying levels of autonomy and that may exhibit adaptiveness after deployment, and that, for explicit or implicit objectives, infers, from the input it receives, how to generate outputs such as predictions, content, recommendations, or decisions that can influence physical or virtual environments.

What are the prohibited practices that fall within Coimisiún na Meán’s remit under Article 5 of the AI Act?

The AI Act prohibits a number of AI practices that are unacceptable due to the risks they pose to European values and fundamental rights.

Coimisiún na Meán acts as a Market Surveillance Authority, for the purposes of the AI Act, for the entities that it currently regulates in respect of the following two prohibited practices:
• Article 5.1(a) of the AI Act: AI systems that deploy subliminal or deceptive techniques with the objective or effect of materially distorting individual or group behaviour by impairing their ability to make informed decisions and, thereby, potentially causing significant harm.
• Article 5.1(b) of the AI Act: AI systems that exploit vulnerabilities based on age, disability, or socioeconomic situations with the objective or effect of materially distorting the behaviour of individuals or groups, leading to potentially significant harm.

What transparency obligations are set out under Article 50 of the AI Act?

The AI Act sets out rules for:
• providers of AI systems, namely those who directly or indirectly develop an AI system or a general-purpose AI model and place it on the market or put the AI system into service, and;
• deployers of AI systems, meaning natural or legal persons using an AI system under its/their authority except where the AI system is used in the course of a personal non-professional activity.

These rules include transparency obligations for providers and deployers of certain AI systems. These obligations vary based on whether one is a provider or deployer of AI systems.

The rules for providers include transparency obligations such as:
• The requirement for natural persons to be informed that they are interacting with an AI system (e.g. chatbots), unless this is obvious from the circumstances and context of use.
• Making sure that AI systems capable of generating content (i.e. synthetic audio, image, video, text) ensure that such content is marked in a machine-readable format and detectable as artificially generated or manipulated.

The rules for deployers include transparency obligations such as:
• A need to ensure that where an AI system that generates or manipulates image, audio or video content constituting a deep fake is deployed, the deployer shall disclose that the content has been artificially generated or manipulated;
• A need to ensure that where an AI system that generates or manipulates text which is published with the purpose of informing the public on matters of public interest is deployed, the deployer shall disclose that the text has been artificially generated or manipulated;
• The requirement to inform users where they are exposed to an emotion recognition system or a biometric categorisation system.

Further information

The European Commission has a dedicated webpage on the AI Act, as well as guidelines on the implementation of prohibited practices and a Code of Practice on Transparency of AI-Generated Content.

Contact

The Irish AI Office (Oifig IS na hÉireann) is designated the single point of contact for the Regulation of AI in Ireland. To submit a query in relation to the EU AI Act, please do so via the Irish AI Office’s contact form. To access this form and for information on regulation of Artificial Intelligence under the EU AI Act, please consult the Irish AI Office’s website.