EU AI Act Glossary

A consolidated reference glossary for legal, technical, and regulatory terminology under the European Union Artificial Intelligence Act.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

A broad branch of computer science dedicated to developing automated systems capable of performing cognitive tasks historically associated with human intelligence, including learning, reasoning, pattern recognition, problem-solving, and natural language understanding.

AI System (Legal Definition — Article 3(1))

Defined in Article 3(1) of Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 (EU AI Act):

"‘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"

European Union Artificial Intelligence Act (EU AI Act)

Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 of the European Parliament and of the Council. A comprehensive, horizontal product-safety regulation establishing harmonized legal rules for the development, placing on the market, putting into service, and use of AI systems across the EU single market based on defined risk tiers.

High-Level Expert Group on AI (HLEG on AI)

An independent expert advisory group established by the European Commission in June 2018 comprising representatives from academia, civil society, and industry. The HLEG authored the Ethics Guidelines for Trustworthy AI (2019) and policy recommendations that served as the conceptual foundation for the AI Act.

Horizontal Regulation

A regulatory architecture that applies across multiple industries, economic sectors, and domains simultaneously, establishing baseline requirements based on technology risk rather than domain-specific vertical rules (e.g., healthcare-specific or banking-specific rules).

Trustworthy AI

A regulatory and ethical paradigm established by the EU HLEG asserting that artificial intelligence must satisfy three core conditions throughout its lifecycle: (1) lawful, adhering to all applicable laws and regulations; (2) ethical, adhering to fundamental rights, ethical principles, and values; and (3) robust, both technically and socially resilient against unintentional harm or deliberate exploits.

White Paper on AI (2020)

A preparatory policy document published by the European Commission in February 2020 (COM(2020) 65) outlining options to promote AI uptake ("ecosystem of excellence") while addressing fundamental rights and safety risks through new legislation ("ecosystem of trust"), accompanied by an EU-wide public consultation.

Historical Milestones & Concepts

• Alan Turing (1950): British mathematician and computer science pioneer who framed the question "Can machines think?" in his seminal paper Computing Machinery and Intelligence, introducing the imitation game (Turing Test).
• John McCarthy (1956): American computer scientist who coined the term "Artificial Intelligence" in the Dartmouth Summer Research Project proposal, establishing AI as an independent academic discipline.
• Deep Blue (1997): IBM's specialized chess-playing supercomputer that defeated reigning world chess champion Garry Kasparov, representing a landmark achievement in symbolic heuristic search and expert computing systems.
• ChatGPT / Generative AI: Large language models trained on massive text corpora capable of generating conversational responses and cross-domain text, marking the transition of advanced AI into mainstream consumer and enterprise accessibility.

References

• Ethics Guidelines for Trustworthy AI - High-Level Expert Group on AI (2019) - Defines the core pillars of lawful, ethical, and robust AI.
• Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 (Official Journal of the European Union) - Primary statutory definitions under Article 3.
• EU AI Act MOC - Navigation hub connecting glossaries to atomic concept notes.

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