General-Purpose AI Code of Practice
In plain wordsA voluntary rulebook, published by the EU in 2025, that makers of large AI models can sign to show they follow the EU AI Act's rules on transparency, copyright and safety.
A set of voluntary commitments, provided for by the EU AI ActEU AI Act, prop. n.: The European Union's law on artificial intelligence, the first broad AI law anywhere: it bans some uses, sets strict checks for risky ones and puts duties on the makers of the biggest AI models., that providers of general-purpose AI modelsgeneral-purpose AI model, n.: The EU's legal name for the large, adaptable AI models behind chatbots and similar tools: models that can turn their hand to many different jobs and be built into many other products. can sign as a way of showing they meet their obligations until harmonised standardsharmonised standards, n.: Official European technical standards, written at the EU's request, that companies can follow to show their AI systems meet the law, instead of proving it from scratch. exist; independent chairs wrote it through several drafting rounds with about 1,000 stakeholders, and the AI OfficeAI Office, prop. n.: The European Commission's team that oversees the EU AI Act, especially the rules for the largest AI models, and coordinates how the law is applied across Europe. ran the process. It has three chapters. Transparency provides a model documentation form for information owed to the AI Office and to downstream providers. Copyright commits signatories to a copyright policy, to respecting machine-readable opt-outs such as robots.txt when crawling the web, and to mitigating infringing outputs. Safety and Security, for providers of models with systemic riskgeneral-purpose AI model with systemic risk, n.: The EU's label for the very largest and most capable AI models, whose failure or misuse could cause harm across society, so their makers must test them for dangers and report serious incidents., requires a safety and security framework, systemic-risk identification and analysis — including model evaluations and red teamingred teaming, n.: Deliberately attacking your own AI system — trying to make it misbehave, leak secrets or help with harm — so that weaknesses are found before real adversaries or users find them. — risk-acceptance criteria, mitigations, model reports to the AI Office, serious incidentserious incident, n.: Under EU AI law, an AI failure that kills or badly injures someone, disrupts vital services, violates fundamental rights or seriously damages property — which the maker must report to authorities quickly. reporting and cybersecurity. Providers that do not sign must show compliance by other adequate means and can expect closer scrutiny.
Rather than sign the General-Purpose AI Code of Practice, the provider documented its compliance its own way.
Origin
Drafting began in September 2024 under thirteen independent chairs and vice-chairs, among them Yoshua Bengio; drafts appeared in November 2024, December 2024 and March 2025, and the final text was published on 10 July 2025, two months late. The Commission and the AI Board then assessed it as an adequate voluntary tool.
Usage note
As of October 2026, 22 providers — including Amazon, Anthropic, Google, IBM, Microsoft, Mistral AI and OpenAI — had signed the whole code and xAI only its Safety and Security chapter; Meta declined. A separate code covers the marking and labelling of AI-generated content under the Act's transparency obligationstransparency obligations, n.: EU rules requiring that people be told when they are dealing with AI: chatbots must say they are bots, AI-made content must be marked, and deepfakes must be labeled..
Related
- general-purpose AI modelgeneral-purpose AI model, n.: The EU's legal name for the large, adaptable AI models behind chatbots and similar tools: models that can turn their hand to many different jobs and be built into many other products.
- general-purpose AI model with systemic riskgeneral-purpose AI model with systemic risk, n.: The EU's label for the very largest and most capable AI models, whose failure or misuse could cause harm across society, so their makers must test them for dangers and report serious incidents.
- AI OfficeAI Office, prop. n.: The European Commission's team that oversees the EU AI Act, especially the rules for the largest AI models, and coordinates how the law is applied across Europe.
- EU AI ActEU AI Act, prop. n.: The European Union's law on artificial intelligence, the first broad AI law anywhere: it bans some uses, sets strict checks for risky ones and puts duties on the makers of the biggest AI models.
- Frontier AI Safety CommitmentsFrontier AI Safety Commitments, prop. n.: Promises made in 2024 by major AI companies to publish safety plans for their most advanced models, including the danger points at which they would stop if the risks could not be controlled.
- text and data mining exceptiontext and data mining exception, n.: A rule in many countries' copyright laws that lets people use computers to copy and analyze large amounts of text, images or data without asking permission — sometimes only for research, sometimes unless owners opt out.
Sources
- European Commission (2025). The General-Purpose AI Code of Practice. Published 10 July 2025; signatory list updated 7 October 2026. digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/contents-code-gpai
Defined in law or standards
EU AI Act (Reg. (EU) 2024/1689), Art. 56; reliance on codes Art. 53(4) and Art. 55(2)
Mentioned in
EU AI ActEU AI Act, prop. n.: The European Union's law on artificial intelligence, the first broad AI law anywhere: it bans some uses, sets strict checks for risky ones and puts duties on the makers of the biggest AI models., general-purpose AI modelgeneral-purpose AI model, n.: The EU's legal name for the large, adaptable AI models behind chatbots and similar tools: models that can turn their hand to many different jobs and be built into many other products., AI OfficeAI Office, prop. n.: The European Commission's team that oversees the EU AI Act, especially the rules for the largest AI models, and coordinates how the law is applied across Europe., G7 Hiroshima AI ProcessG7 Hiroshima AI Process, prop. n.: An effort begun by the G7 group of wealthy democracies in Japan in 2023 that sets voluntary rules for companies building the most advanced AI, which now report publicly on how they follow them., general-purpose AIgeneral-purpose AI, n.: AI that can do a wide range of different tasks, like writing, coding, translating and analyzing images, rather than the one job it was built for. Today's chatbots are the main example., general-purpose AI model with systemic riskgeneral-purpose AI model with systemic risk, n.: The EU's label for the very largest and most capable AI models, whose failure or misuse could cause harm across society, so their makers must test them for dangers and report serious incidents., opt-outopt-out, n.: A way for creators, websites or individuals to say 'do not use my work or data to train AI' — instead of being asked for permission first, which would be opt-in., pre-deployment testingpre-deployment testing, n.: Checking a new AI model for dangerous abilities and bad behavior before it is released to the public, sometimes with outside experts or government testers given early access., third-party AI evaluationthird-party AI evaluation, n.: Testing of an AI system by someone other than the company that made it — a government institute, a nonprofit lab or independent researchers — to check what it can do and how risky it is., AI PactAI Pact, prop. n.: A voluntary European Commission scheme in which companies pledge to start following the EU AI Act's main ideas early, before the rules legally apply to them., European Artificial Intelligence BoardEuropean Artificial Intelligence Board, prop. n.: A committee of representatives from every EU country that helps apply the EU AI Act consistently across Europe and advises the European Commission.