# Extract — AI Act Article 3: Definitions (selected)

**Source**: `sources.yaml` id `ai-act-en-eurlex` (working copy: `ai-act-en-europarl-corrigendum`)
**Document**: Regulation (EU) 2024/1689
**Accessed**: 2026-04-25
**Licence**: EU legislative text — public domain
**Citation**: Regulation (EU) 2024/1689, Art. 3

This extract covers definitions used across the skill. The numbering follows the Official Journal version.

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## Article 3 — Definitions (selected)

For the purposes of this Regulation, the following definitions apply:

**(1) '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.

**(2) 'risk'** means the combination of the probability of an occurrence of harm and the severity of that harm.

**(3) 'provider'** means a natural or legal person, public authority, agency or other body that develops an AI system or a general-purpose AI model or that has an AI system or a general-purpose AI model developed and places it on the market or puts the AI system into service under its own name or trademark, whether for payment or free of charge.

**(4) 'deployer'** means a natural or legal person, public authority, agency or other body using an AI system under its authority except where the AI system is used in the course of a personal non-professional activity.

**(5) 'authorised representative'** means a natural or legal person located or established in the Union who has received and accepted a written mandate from a provider of an AI system or a general-purpose AI model to perform on its behalf the obligations and procedures established by this Regulation.

**(6) 'importer'** means a natural or legal person located or established in the Union that places on the market an AI system that bears the name or trademark of a natural or legal person established in a third country.

**(7) 'distributor'** means a natural or legal person in the supply chain, other than the provider or the importer, that makes an AI system available on the Union market.

**(8) 'operator'** means a provider, product manufacturer, deployer, authorised representative, importer or distributor.

**(9) 'placing on the market'** means the first making available of an AI system or a general-purpose AI model on the Union market.

**(10) 'making available on the market'** means the supply of an AI system or a general-purpose AI model for distribution or use on the Union market in the course of a commercial activity, whether in return for payment or free of charge.

**(11) 'putting into service'** means the supply of an AI system for first use directly to the deployer or for own use in the Union for its intended purpose.

**(12) 'intended purpose'** means the use for which an AI system is intended by the provider, including the specific context and conditions of use, as specified in the information supplied by the provider in the instructions for use, promotional or sales materials and statements, as well as in the technical documentation.

**(13) 'reasonably foreseeable misuse'** means the use of an AI system in a way that is not in accordance with its intended purpose, but which may result from reasonably foreseeable human behaviour or interaction with other systems, including other AI systems.

**(14) 'safety component'** means a component of a product or of an AI system which fulfils a safety function for that product or AI system, or the failure or malfunctioning of which endangers the health and safety of persons or property.

**(23) 'substantial modification'** means a change to an AI system after its placing on the market or putting into service which is not foreseen or planned in the initial conformity assessment carried out by the provider and as a result of which the compliance of the AI system with the requirements set out in Section 2 of Chapter III is affected or results in a modification to the intended purpose for which the AI system has been assessed.

**(33) 'biometric data'** means personal data resulting from specific technical processing relating to the physical, physiological or behavioural characteristics of a natural person, such as facial images or dactyloscopic data.

**(34) 'biometric identification'** means the automated recognition of physical, physiological, behavioural, or psychological human features for the purpose of establishing the identity of a natural person by comparing biometric data of that individual to biometric data of individuals stored in a database.

**(35) 'biometric verification'** means the automated, one-to-one verification, including authentication, of the identity of natural persons by comparing their biometric data to previously provided biometric data.

**(36) 'special categories of personal data'** means the categories of personal data referred to in Article 9(1) of Regulation (EU) 2016/679, Article 10 of Directive (EU) 2016/680 and Article 10(1) of Regulation (EU) 2018/1725.

**(38) 'emotion recognition system'** means an AI system for the purpose of identifying or inferring emotions or intentions of natural persons on the basis of their biometric data.

**(39) 'biometric categorisation system'** means an AI system for the purpose of assigning natural persons to specific categories on the basis of their biometric data, unless it is ancillary to another commercial service and strictly necessary for objective technical reasons.

**(40) 'remote biometric identification system'** means an AI system for the purpose of identifying natural persons, without their active involvement, typically at a distance through the comparison of a person's biometric data with the biometric data contained in a reference database.

**(41) ''real-time' remote biometric identification system'** means a remote biometric identification system whereby the capturing of biometric data, the comparison and the identification all occur without a significant delay, comprising not only instant identification, but also limited short delays in order to avoid circumvention.

**(42) ''post-remote' biometric identification system'** means a remote biometric identification system other than a 'real-time' remote biometric identification system.

**(44) 'publicly accessible space'** means any publicly or privately owned physical place accessible to an undetermined number of natural persons, regardless of whether certain conditions for access may apply, and regardless of the potential capacity restrictions.

**(49) 'serious incident'** means an incident or malfunctioning of an AI system that directly or indirectly leads to any of the following: (a) the death of a person, or serious harm to a person's health; (b) a serious and irreversible disruption of the management or operation of critical infrastructure; (c) the infringement of obligations under Union law intended to protect fundamental rights; (d) serious harm to property or the environment.

**(60) 'deep fake'** means AI-generated or manipulated image, audio or video content that resembles existing persons, objects, places, entities or events and would falsely appear to a person to be authentic or truthful.

**(63) 'general-purpose AI model'** means an AI model, including where such an AI model is trained with a large amount of data using self-supervision at scale, that displays significant generality and is capable of competently performing a wide range of distinct tasks regardless of the way the model is placed on the market and that can be integrated into a variety of downstream systems or applications, except AI models that are used for research, development or prototyping activities before they are placed on the market.

**(65) 'systemic risk'** means a risk that is specific to the high-impact capabilities of general-purpose AI models, having a significant impact on the Union market due to their reach, or due to actual or reasonably foreseeable negative effects on public health, safety, public security, fundamental rights, or the society as a whole, that can be propagated at scale across the value chain.

**(66) 'high-impact capabilities'** means capabilities that match or exceed the capabilities recorded in the most advanced general-purpose AI models.

**(67) 'general-purpose AI system'** means an AI system which is based on a general-purpose AI model and which has the capability to serve a variety of purposes, both for direct use as well as for integration in other AI systems.

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## Cross-references for the skill

| Concept | Article |
|---|---|
| AI system definition | 3(1) |
| Provider / deployer / importer / distributor | 3(3)–(7) |
| Substantial modification (deemed-provider trigger) | 3(23) |
| Biometric data + biometric ID/categorisation/emotion-recognition | 3(33)–(41) |
| Publicly accessible space | 3(44) |
| Serious incident | 3(49) |
| Deep fake | 3(60) |
| GPAI / systemic risk / high-impact capabilities | 3(63)–(66) |
| GPAI system | 3(67) |