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.
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
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
Legal requirementTransparency and disclosure·South Korea
An AI business operator that provides generative AI or a product or service using it must indicate that the output was generated by generative AI. Where the operator provides content such as virtual sound, images or video that is hard to distinguish from reality, it must clearly notify users that the content is AI-generated, in a manner that does not impair a work's artistic or creative expression where that applies. Detailed methods are left to Presidential Decree and ministry guidance.
Verified (a factual check against the official source, not a legal review)Applies from 22 Jan 2026
Legal requirementTransparency and disclosure·South Korea
An AI business operator that provides a product or service operated by high-impact AI or by generative AI must notify users in advance that the product or service is based on such AI. The notice is owed before use and is the entry point of the Act's transparency chapter; failure to give it can attract an administrative fine after a corrective order.
Verified (a factual check against the official source, not a legal review)Applies from 22 Jan 2026
Any developer or deployer that makes an AI system available to consumers that is intended to interact with them must disclose to each consumer that they are interacting with an AI system, unless that would be obvious to a reasonable person. This duty is not limited to high-risk systems and covers chatbots and voice agents offered to Colorado consumers.
Pending review (a factual check against the official source, not a legal review)
Legal requirementTransparency and disclosure·European Union
A deployer that generates or manipulates image, audio or video content that is a deep fake must disclose that the content has been artificially generated or manipulated, with lighter treatment for evidently artistic, creative, satirical or fictional works so that the disclosure does not spoil the work. A deployer that publishes AI-generated text to inform the public on matters of public interest must disclose this unless the text passed human review or editorial control and someone holds editorial responsibility. The disclosure must reach people clearly at the latest at first exposure.
Verified (a factual check against the official source, not a legal review)Applies from 2 Aug 2026
Legal requirementTransparency and disclosure·European Union
A person affected by a decision that a deployer took on the basis of the output of an Annex III high-risk AI system, other than critical-infrastructure systems, which produces legal effects or similarly significantly affects them in a way they consider adverse to their health, safety or fundamental rights, has the right to obtain from the deployer clear and meaningful explanations of the role the system played in the decision and the main elements of the decision. The right does not apply where Union or national law provides an exception.
Verified (a factual check against the official source, not a legal review)Applies from 2 Dec 2027
Legal requirementTransparency and disclosure·European Union
Deployers of Annex III high-risk AI systems that take decisions about natural persons, or help take them, must inform those persons that they are subject to the system. The notice is separate from any explanation owed under Article 86 and from the worker notice in Article 26(7). In law-enforcement contexts the duty follows the information rules of the Law Enforcement Directive.
Verified (a factual check against the official source, not a legal review)Applies from 2 Dec 2027
Legal requirementTransparency and disclosure·European Union
A deployer of an emotion recognition system or a biometric categorisation system must inform the natural persons exposed to it that the system is operating and must process their personal data in line with the GDPR, the Law Enforcement Directive and the EU institutions data protection regulation. Systems permitted by law to detect, prevent or investigate criminal offences are excepted, subject to safeguards. Use in workplaces and schools is separately banned by Article 5 except for medical or safety reasons.
Verified (a factual check against the official source, not a legal review)Applies from 2 Aug 2026
Legal requirementTransparency and disclosure·European Union
Providers must ensure AI systems intended to interact with people inform them they are dealing with AI unless obvious; providers of systems generating synthetic audio, image, video or text must mark output in a machine-readable, detectable format; deployers of emotion-recognition or biometric-categorisation systems must inform exposed persons; deployers must disclose deepfakes and AI-generated text published to inform the public on matters of public interest, subject to exceptions.
Pending review (a factual check against the official source, not a legal review)Applies from 2 Aug 2026
Legal requirementTransparency and disclosure·European Union
Before putting a high-risk AI system into service or using it at the workplace, a deployer that is an employer must tell the workers' representatives and the affected workers that they will be subject to the system. The information is given following the procedures and rules on informing workers and their representatives under Union and national law and practice, which may include works-council consultation.
Verified (a factual check against the official source, not a legal review)Applies from 2 Dec 2027
California SB 53 · Business and Professions Code Section 22757.12 (as added by SB 53)
Before or at the time a frontier developer deploys a new frontier model, or a substantially modified version, it must publish a transparency report on its website describing the model, its intended uses and restrictions, the release date and modalities, and how to contact the developer. A large frontier developer must add a summary of its catastrophic-risk assessment for the model, the results, any third-party evaluators involved and the steps taken under its frontier AI framework, with trade-secret and security redactions explained.
Verified (a factual check against the official source, not a legal review)Applies from 1 Jan 2026
Legal requirementTransparency and disclosure·Singapore
Organisations should inform individuals that AI systems use their personal data, the purposes, the relevant features and how they influence decisions, proportionate to the impact on the individual.
Source-linked (a factual check against the official source, not a legal review)
Legal requirementTransparency and disclosure·South Korea
Operators of high-impact AI must put in place measures to explain the AI's final results, the main criteria used to reach them, and an overview of the training data, to the extent that this is technically feasible. The duty targets explainability of the system's decisions to users and affected people rather than full disclosure of the model.
Verified (a factual check against the official source, not a legal review)Applies from 22 Jan 2026
Legal requirementTransparency and disclosure·European Union
High-risk AI systems must be designed so their operation is sufficiently transparent for deployers to interpret output and use it appropriately, and must be accompanied by instructions for use covering the provider's identity, the system's characteristics, capabilities and limitations, performance for the intended purpose and known foreseeable misuse, human-oversight measures, expected lifetime and maintenance.
Pending review (a factual check against the official source, not a legal review)Applies from 2 Dec 2027
Legal requirementTransparency and disclosure·European Union
Providers of AI systems, including general-purpose AI systems, that generate synthetic audio, image, video or text must ensure the output is marked in a machine-readable format and detectable as artificially generated or manipulated. The technical solution must be effective, interoperable, robust and reliable as far as the state of the art allows, taking account of content type and cost. Systems that only perform assistive editing or do not substantially alter the input, and law-authorised criminal-detection uses, are outside the duty.
Verified (a factual check against the official source, not a legal review)Applies from 2 Aug 2026
Legal requirementVendor and supply-chain governance·European Union
A provider of a high-risk AI system and any third party that supplies AI systems, tools, services, components or processes used in or integrated into it must set out, in a written agreement, the information, capabilities, technical access and other assistance needed for the provider to meet its obligations, based on the generally acknowledged state of the art. Suppliers of free and open-source tools and components other than general-purpose AI models are outside this duty. The AI Office may publish voluntary model terms.
Verified (a factual check against the official source, not a legal review)Applies from 2 Dec 2027
Legal requirementVendor and supply-chain governance·European Union
Importers must verify that the provider completed conformity assessment, drew up technical documentation, affixed CE marking and appointed an authorised representative where required, and must indicate their name and contact details on the system. Distributors must verify CE marking, the declaration of conformity and instructions, and refrain from making non-compliant systems available.
Pending review (a factual check against the official source, not a legal review)Applies from 2 Dec 2027
Voluntary guidanceData governance and quality·Singapore
Covers data lineage and quality, minimising bias in datasets, model explainability, repeatability, robustness, regular tuning and active monitoring after deployment.
Source-linked (a factual check against the official source, not a legal review)
Voluntary guidanceGovernance and accountability·India
The guidelines encourage organisations to embed principles such as fairness, accountability, safety and transparency, to classify and mitigate risks proportionately, and to participate in voluntary frameworks and incident reporting.
Source-linked (a factual check against the official source, not a legal review)
Voluntary guidanceGovernance and accountability·United States
Govern covers policies and procedures for AI risk, roles and responsibilities, workforce diversity and training, organisational culture, stakeholder engagement, and third-party risk management. It is the cross-cutting function that supports the other three.
Source-linked (a factual check against the official source, not a legal review)
Voluntary guidanceGovernance and accountability·United Kingdom
Guardrail 1 asks organisations to set up accountability processes including governance, internal capability and a strategy for regulatory compliance; guardrail 2 asks for a risk-management process to identify and mitigate risks across the AI lifecycle.
Source-linked (a factual check against the official source, not a legal review)
Voluntary guidanceGovernance and accountability·Singapore
Organisations should adapt existing governance to AI: clear roles and responsibilities, board and senior management oversight, risk-management and internal controls, and staff training.
Source-linked (a factual check against the official source, not a legal review)
Voluntary guidanceGovernance and accountability·United Kingdom
AI systems should not undermine legal rights, discriminate unfairly or create unfair market outcomes. The Equality Act 2010 and UK GDPR fairness principle make key parts of this binding.
Source-linked (a factual check against the official source, not a legal review)
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.
