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Technical documentation: AI obligations

Practical requirements extracted from policy instruments, with the source article, the actors they bind, evidence examples and original framework mappings. Legal requirements are marked; everything else is voluntary guidance.

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3 of 117 obligations match · Download these as CSV

Legal requirement Technical documentation European Union

Draw up technical documentation before placing a high-risk system on the market

EU AI Act · Article 11 and Annex IV

Technical documentation must be drawn up before a high-risk system is placed on the market or put into service and kept up to date. It must demonstrate compliance with the Section 2 requirements and contain at least the elements in Annex IV, including a general description, development process, monitoring and control, risk-management description, and the applied standards. SMEs may use a simplified form provided by the Commission.

Pending review (a factual check against the official source, not a legal review) Applies from 2 Dec 2027
Legal requirement Technical documentation European Union

Providers must document and register a conclusion that an Annex III system is not high-risk

EU AI Act · Article 6(4); Article 49(2)

A provider that considers a system listed in Annex III to be outside the high-risk tier because it meets one of the Article 6(3) conditions, such as performing a narrow procedural task or only preparing a human assessment, must write down that assessment before placing the system on the market or putting it into service, register the system in the EU database under Article 49(2), and hand over the assessment on request from a national competent authority.

Verified (a factual check against the official source, not a legal review) Applies from 2 Dec 2027
Legal requirement Technical documentation European Union

Providers of GPAI models must maintain technical documentation and inform downstream providers

EU AI Act · Article 53(1)(a) and 53(1)(b); Annexes XI and XII

Providers of general-purpose AI models must draw up and keep up to date technical documentation covering the training and testing process and evaluation results, as set in Annex XI, and supply it to the AI Office or national authorities on request. They must also keep current the Annex XII information for providers that integrate the model into their own AI systems, so those providers understand its capabilities and limitations and can meet their own duties. Free and open-source models without systemic risk are exempt from both duties.

Verified (a factual check against the official source, not a legal review) Applies from 2 Aug 2025

Frequently asked questions

What is an obligation on this site?

A single practical requirement pulled out of an instrument and stated on its own: keep a risk management system, log incidents, document training data, provide human oversight, and so on. Each one cites the article or section it comes from so you can check it against the source.

Does a voluntary obligation have legal force?

No, and every obligation is labelled either a legal requirement or voluntary guidance. Voluntary items still matter in practice, because procurement questionnaires and auditors ask about them, but only the binding ones carry legal consequence.

How do I find the obligations that apply to my organisation?

Filter by jurisdiction, category, actor, sector or use case. The applicability check asks a short set of questions and returns the duties that may reach you. It is an educational screen, not a legal determination, and it says so.

Why do some instruments have no obligations listed?

Because nobody has broken them out yet. Most instruments are recorded at summary level first; obligations are added jurisdiction by jurisdiction. The coverage and open-gaps pages publish exactly what is missing rather than hiding it.