The EU Artificial Intelligence Act entered into force in August 2024 and its high-risk provisions are now being enforced. For women working in tech and for organisations building AI that touches people's lives, here are the three things that matter most.
1. Hiring and Credit Scoring AI Are Now \'High-Risk\'
The Act classifies AI systems used in employment, credit scoring, education, and essential services as "high-risk." This means that any organisation using AI to screen job applicants, assess creditworthiness, or determine access to benefits must now comply with mandatory transparency, accuracy, and bias-testing requirements.
In practice: if your company uses an AI tool to shortlist job applications, you are now legally required to test it for discriminatory outcomes and document the results.
2. Facial Recognition in Public Spaces Is Banned (With Exceptions)
Real-time biometric surveillance in publicly accessible spaces is banned for law enforcement — a significant win for civil liberties advocates who have long argued that facial recognition is most error-prone for women and people with darker skin tones.
The exceptions (terrorism, missing children, serious crime) are narrow but contested, and enforcement will vary by member state.
3. Women Must Be in the Room Where the Standards Are Written
The Act mandates technical standards for high-risk AI systems, which are currently being drafted by CEN-CENELEC working groups. These standards will determine how bias is measured, what counts as acceptable error rates, and which demographic groups must be explicitly tested. If those rooms are not diverse, the standards will not be either.
Join our EU AI Act working group to engage with the standards process.