The European Commission’s First Use Of EU AI Act Investigatory Powers

Under the phased implementation of the EU AI Act (“the AI Act”), the enforcement powers of the European Commission’s AI Office became applicable in respect of general-purpose AI (“GPAI”) model providers on 2 August 2026.  Less than a month later, it exercised its investigatory powers for the first time, marking the beginning of active regulatory oversight of the AI Act.

On 29 August 2026, the AI Office issued its first formal Requests for Information (“RFIs”) to providers of GPAI models under the AI Act.  These RFIs fell into two broad categories.

• Safety and Security: The first set concerned GPAI model safety, security, independent external model evaluations, and the monitoring of GPAI models once they are available on the market. The focus is on safeguarding GPAI models against physical, human and AI-related risks as well as ensuring model usage is monitored once the AI is publicly available.  While the European Commission has not publicly identified the recipients of these