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Compliance with AI rules is voluntary

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But non-signatories will miss legal certainty

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AI rules to be enforced from August 2026 for new models

(Adds bullet points, background and details)

By Foo Yun Chee

BRUSSELS, July 10 (Reuters) -

A code of practice to help companies comply with the

European Union's landmark AI rules will focus on transparency,

copyright, safety and security, highlighting the EU's push to

set global AI standards amid rapid advancements, the European

Commission said on Thursday.

Signing up to the code is voluntary, but companies that

decline to do so will not benefit from the legal certainty

provided to a signatory.

The comments came as the EU executive presented a final

draft of the guidance, drawn up by 13 independent experts.

The AI rules, which will come into effect in a staggered

manner, will apply to Google owner Alphabet, Facebook

owner Meta, Alphabet's Google, OpenAI,

Anthropic, Mistral and other companies.

The

EU's AI Act

, which came into force last June, imposes strict

transparency obligations on high-risk AI systems, with lighter

requirements for general-purpose AI models.

It restricts governments' use of real-time biometric

surveillance in public spaces to cases linked to certain crimes

or the prevention of terrorist attacks.

The AI rules for large language models (GPAI) will become

legally binding on August 2. It will only be enforced a year

later for new models placed on the market starting from next

month. Existing models will have two years to August 2, 2027 to

comply with the rules.

While the guidance on transparency and copyright will apply

to all GPAI providers, the chapters on safety and security

target providers of the most advanced models such as OpenAI's

ChatGPT, Meta's Llama, Google's Gemini and Anthropic's Claude.

"Co-designed by AI stakeholders, the Code is aligned with

their needs. Therefore, I invite all general-purpose AI model

providers to adhere to the Code. Doing so will secure them a

clear, collaborative route to compliance with the EU's AI Act,"

EU tech chief Henna Virkkunen said.

EU countries and the Commission will need to give the green

light before the code can be implemented, tentatively expected

at the end of the year.