EU hits snooze on AI Act rules after industry backlash

Europe's much-hyped AI rulebook just hit the regulatory equivalent of "snooze for 16 months" after Brussels quietly caved to industry pressure and agreed to simplify and delay key parts of the AI Act. European Union lawmakers and member states reached a provisional agreement Thursday on the so-called "Digital Omnibus on AI," a cleanup package that trims parts of the bloc's flagship AI law after months of complaints from industry that the rules were becoming unworkable. The headline change pushes back enforcement of rules covering systems in so-called high-risk AI areas such as biometrics, critical infrastructure, education, employment, migration, and border control until December 2, 2027, a 16-month delay from the previous August 2, 2026, deadline. AI systems embedded in products such as lifts and toys are now getting even longer, with compliance deadlines stretching to August 2, 2028. This marks a big win for tech firms and industry groups that have spent months pressuring the European Commission (EC) to soften the AI Act. Earlier this week, executives from companies including ASML, Airbus, Ericsson, Nokia, SAP, Siemens, and Mistral AI publicly warned that Europe risked over-regulating itself out of the global AI race. Officials maintain the delay is about timing, not watering down the law. The EC argues the rules are moving faster than the standards needed to support them, and companies still lack the guidance and technical tools required for compliance. The deal marks a notable rollback in the EU's digital rulebook after years of Brussels proudly marketing itself as the world's tech cop. That has come under mounting pressure from both Washington and European industry, which increasingly argues the bloc has become very good at regulating technologies it struggles to produce at scale. The revised package gives smaller companies a bit more breathing room and tries to untangle parts of the AI Act from existing product safety laws. Much of the focus is on industrial sectors where manufacturers had warned they were facing overlapping requirements and duplicate compliance work. Not every change loosened the law. The agreement adds a ban on AI systems used to create non-consensual sexual deepfakes and child sexual abuse material following global backlash over abusive uses of generative AI tools, including xAI's Grok chatbot. Providers claiming exemptions from high-risk classification will also still need to register those systems in the EU database. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen welcomed the agreement in a post on X, saying it would provide "a simple, innovation-friendly environment" while strengthening protections for citizens. Henna Virkkunen, the Commission's Executive Vice-President for Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy, tried to split the difference between deregulation and reassurance. "Our businesses and citizens want two things from AI rules," she said. "They want to be able to innovate and feel safe." For the time being, it seems Europe has decided that keeping its AI industry alive matters slightly more than making it fill out another stack of forms before 2027. ®