Understanding AI Risk Levels Under the EU AI Act

The EU AI Act introduces a structured approach to regulating artificial intelligence by classifying systems into four risk levels. Each category reflects the potential impact on safety, rights, and society, guiding how AI should be governed and monitored.

Modeling based on Author's Perspective

Entity	Description
Unacceptable Risk	AI systems that pose serious threats to fundamental rights, including social scoring, mandatory emotion recognition, manipulative AI targeting vulnerable individuals, and real-time mass biometric surveillance.
High Risk	AI systems used in critical domains such as medical diagnosis support, control of critical infrastructure, education assessment, employment screening, law enforcement, and financial credit scoring.
Limited Risk	AI systems requiring transparency, including chatbots and generative AI, where users must be informed and risks such as hallucinations must be mitigated.
Minimal Risk	AI systems with low impact on safety or rights, such as spam filters and AI-driven game characters, requiring no specific regulatory obligations.

Understanding these risk categories helps ensure that AI systems are developed and deployed responsibly, balancing innovation with safety and public trust.