The EU Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act) has been widely discussed since its came into force, but for many it remains difficult to navigate in practice. You may be aware that it applies to your organisation or your work with AI systems yet you struggle to understand what it actually requires in concrete situations. This course is designed to address that challenge. It provides a structured way to read and interpret the regulation, helping you identify when it is relevant to you and where to look for answers. It also serves as a guide for those who need to demonstrate their own AI regulatory literacy and provide evidence of their understanding of the AI Act.
The course follows the AI Act’s core architecture:
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understanding its scope and regulated actors across the AI value chain,
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applying its risk-based approach from prohibited practices to high-risk obligations and transparency duties, and
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examining the new governance system, including oversight authorities, standards, market surveillance and regulatory sandboxes.
You will learn the practical compliance logic for high-risk AI systems, including transparency requirements, human oversight and the responsibility rules that allocate obligations across providers, importers, distributors, and deployers.
The course also covers General Purpose AI (GPAI): why the Act regulates GPAI models separately from AI systems, how “systemic risk” changes obligations and what this means for foundation model governance and downstream applications.
Throughout the course, the AI Act, which is the first comprehensive legal framework for AI worldwide, is presented in its broader regulatory and political context – as a harmonisation project combining internal market logic with health, safety and fundamental rights protection, and also as a strategic instrument in a global landscape shaped by competitive innovation and geopolitical dynamics.
By the end, you will be able to interpret key legal requirements, map them to AI development and deployment workflows and engage critically with the political and regulatory debates shaping the AI Act’s implementation.
