AI Governance Engineer
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Fine-tuning

By Updated

Further training of an existing model on new data to adapt it to a task or domain. It changes the model, so it is a change event with its own evals; for general-purpose AI models, the Commission treats a modifier as a provider only above one third of the original training compute 1.

Developed in
ch. 15, How it is adapted
ch. 18, When a fine-tuner becomes a GPAI provider
Chapters
ch. 15, Deployment · ch. 18, EU AI Act
Source
1 numbered reference, listed below

Where it is used

11 chapters of the Body of Knowledge use the term. Each link opens the first section that does.

Fine-tuning: mentions per chapter17 mentions of the term across 11 of the 23 chapters of the Body of Knowledge; the chapters the glossary cross-references are drawn solid.Cross-referenced chapterOther chapter04 The Stack: 1 mention04 The Stack108 Regulatory Map: 1 mention08 Regulatory Map110 Reading List: 1 mention10 Reading List112 Governance Program: 1 mention12 Governance Program113 Risk Management: 1 mention13 Risk Management114 Development: 2 mentions14 Development215 Deployment: 1 mention15 Deployment118 EU AI Act: 1 mention18 EU AI Act119 Privacy & AI: 4 mentions19 Privacy & AI420 Existing Law: 3 mentions20 Existing Law322 Principles & Standards: 1 mention22 Principles & Standards1No mentions in the other 12 chaptersSource: the Body of Knowledgev0.5.0
Fine-tuning: mentions per chapter17 mentions of the term across 11 of the 23 chapters of the Body of Knowledge; the chapters the glossary cross-references are drawn solid.Cross-referenced chapterOther chapter0001020304 The Stack: 1 mention10405060708 Regulatory Map: 1 mention10810 Reading List: 1 mention1101112 Governance Program: 1 mention11213 Risk Management: 1 mention11314 Development: 2 mentions21415 Deployment: 1 mention115161718 EU AI Act: 1 mention11819 Privacy & AI: 4 mentions41920 Existing Law: 3 mentions3202122 Principles & Standards: 1 mention12223Source: the Body of Knowledge v0.5.0
Mentions per chapter How often each chapter names the term, with the chapters the glossary cross-references drawn solid. The longest bar is where to read the term in use; bars spread across many chapters mark a term that runs through the discipline.
Mentions as a table
Mentions of Fine-tuning per chapter
ChapterMentionsCross-referenced
00 Preface0No
01 Definition0No
02 Why Now0No
03 Values & Principles0No
04 The Stack1No
05 Patterns0No
06 The Role0No
07 Maturity Model0No
08 Regulatory Map1No
10 Reading List1No
11 AI Defined0No
12 Governance Program1No
13 Risk Management1No
14 Development2No
15 Deployment1Yes
16 Fairness & XAI0No
17 Incidents0No
18 EU AI Act1Yes
19 Privacy & AI4No
20 Existing Law3No
21 AI Laws Worldwide0No
22 Principles & Standards1No
23 AI Agents0No

Patterns that use this term

2 pattern pages use the term, most mentions first.

Fine-tuning: related terms and patternsThe term at the centre; related terms on solid edges, the terms it is contrasted with on dashed edges, and the patterns that use it most in the colour of their layer.RelatedColour: stack layer of the pattern01 Govern-as-Code02 InventoryFine-tuningRelated terms (5)Downstream modifier (GPAI) · RelatedDownstream modifier (GPAI)Evals · RelatedEvalsGPAI · RelatedGPAIProvider · RelatedProviderReinforcement learning from human feedback (RLHF) · RelatedRLHFPatterns using it (2)Dataset Admission Gate, 2 mentions · Uses the termDataset Admission GateRights Requests Against Models, 3 mentions · Uses the termRights Requests Against Models
Fine-tuning: related terms and patternsThe term at the centre; related terms on solid edges, the terms it is contrasted with on dashed edges, and the patterns that use it most in the colour of their layer.RelatedColour: stack layer of the pattern01 Govern-as-Code02 InventoryRelated terms (5)Downstream modifier (GPAI) · RelatedDownstream modifier (GPAI)Evals · RelatedEvalsGPAI · RelatedGPAIProvider · RelatedProviderReinforcement learning from human feedback (RLHF) · RelatedRLHFPatterns using it (2)Dataset Admission Gate, 2 mentions · Uses the termDataset Admission GateRights Requests Against Models, 3 mentions · Uses the termRights Requests Against ModelsFine-tuning
The term's neighbourhood Terms related to this one on solid edges, terms it is often confused with on dashed edges, and the patterns that use it most in the colour of their layer. Follow a dashed edge to check the distinction before you use either term.
Neighbourhood as a table
Neighbourhood of Fine-tuning
FamilyItemRelation
Related termsDownstream modifier (GPAI)Related
Related termsEvalsRelated
Related termsGPAIRelated
Related termsProviderRelated
Related termsReinforcement learning from human feedback (RLHF)Related
Patterns using itDataset Admission Gate, 2 mentionsUses the term
Patterns using itRights Requests Against Models, 3 mentionsUses the term
  • Downstream modifier (GPAI)

    An actor that fine-tunes or modifies another provider's general-purpose AI model.

  • Reinforcement learning from human feedback (RLHF)

    A way to align a pre-trained model: supervised fine-tuning on human demonstrations, then reinforcement learning against a reward model trained on human…

  • GPAI

    General-purpose AI model: under the AI Act, a model that shows significant generality, can competently perform a wide range of distinct tasks and can be…

  • Provider

    Under the EU AI Act, whoever develops an AI system or general-purpose AI model, or has one developed, and places it on the market or puts it into service…

  • Evals

    Automated tests of a model's or agent's behaviour (capability, safety and adversarial), run as controls, not as one-off research.

Sources

  1. [1] Guidelines on obligations for general-purpose AI providers, FAQ (a modifier becomes a provider only when the modification uses more than one third of the original model's training compute; obligations limited to the modification). European Commission. 2025. https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/faqs/guidelines-obligations-general-purpose-ai-providers (verified: primary)

Definitions of legal terms paraphrase the cited text, which governs. Dated statements are as of .

Cite this term

García Aibar, J. (2026). Fine-tuning. In AI Governance Engineering: The Thesis & Body of Knowledge (v0.5.0), Glossary. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22956197. https://aigovernanceengineer.com/glossary/fine-tuning. CC BY 4.0

BibTeX

@misc{aige2026finetuning,
  author  = {Jorge García Aibar},
  title   = {{Fine-tuning}},
  note    = {Glossary, AI Governance Engineering: The Thesis \& Body of Knowledge, version 0.5.0},
  year    = {2026},
  doi     = {10.5281/zenodo.22956197},
  url     = {https://aigovernanceengineer.com/glossary/fine-tuning}
}