The European Union's Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act)
carries significant implications for General-Purpose AI (GPAI)
models.
Understanding General-Purpose AI
GPAI models are characterised by their ability to perform a wide
range of distinct tasks and display significant generality. They
are not designed to perform a specific task but, rather, can be
adapted and integrated into various downstream applications.
Common examples include OpenAI's GPT series, which can
generate text, translate languages, and answer questions on
multiple topics, and image and video generation models, such as
DALL-E and Midjourney.
The versatility of GPAI is both its strength and a source of
regulatory concern, which is the reason for the AI Act's rules
that regulate the development and deployment of these models.
