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GPAI

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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 integrated into many downstream systems 1. The Commission's indicative criterion is training compute above 10^23 FLOP 2. The AI Office enforces GPAI duties from 2 Aug 2026.

Developed in
ch. 18, General-purpose AI models
ch. 11, Foundation models and GPAI
Chapters
ch. 08, Regulatory Map · ch. 11, AI Defined · ch. 18, EU AI Act
Contrast with
Foundation model
Source
2 numbered references, listed below

Where it is used

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

Patterns that use this term

5 pattern pages use the term, most mentions first.

  • Rights reservation (TDM opt-out)

    A rightholder's express reservation of text and data mining under Article 4(3) of the DSM Directive, which takes the content out of the general mining…

  • Downstream modifier (GPAI)

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

  • Authorised representative

    Under the EU AI Act, a person established in the Union with a written mandate from a non-EU provider of a high-risk AI system or general-purpose AI model to…

  • Presumption of conformity

    The legal effect under AI Act Article 40: a high-risk system or GPAI model that conforms with OJ-cited harmonised standards is presumed to meet the…

  • Training-content summary

    The public summary of the content used to train a general-purpose AI model, required by AI Act Article 53(1)(d) on a mandatory Commission template covering…

  • Placing on the market

    Under the EU AI Act, the first making available of an AI system or general-purpose AI model on the Union market; later supplies in the course of a commercial…

  • Downstream provider

    Under the EU AI Act, the provider of an AI system that integrates an AI model, its own or one supplied by another entity.

Sources

  1. [1] Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 (AI Act), consolidated text as amended by Regulation (EU) 2026/1744 (Digital Omnibus on AI, in force 27 Jul 2026; definitions in Art. 3, incl. 3(1), 3(3) to 3(14), 3(14b), 3(20), 3(22), 3(23), 3(29) to 3(32), 3(49), 3(55) to 3(57), 3(60), 3(61), 3(63), 3(68); Arts. 4, 5, 6 (incl. 6(3) third subparagraph, profiling), 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 17, 22 to 27 (incl. 26(11)), 40, 41, 43, 47, 48, 50, 53 (incl. 53(1)(c)), 55, 57, 60, 72, 73, 86; Annexes I, III, IV). Publications Office of the EU (EUR-Lex). 2026-07-27. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2024/1689/2026-07-27/eng (verified: primary)
  2. [2] Commission Guidelines on the scope of the obligations for providers of general-purpose AI models (content approved 18 July 2025 by C(2025) 5045 final; formal text C(2025) 7719 final of 19 Nov 2025; paras. 65 to 68 on modifiers; non-binding; indicative criterion of training compute above 10^23 FLOP with the ability to generate language, images or video). European Commission. 2025-11-19. https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/library/guidelines-scope-obligations-providers-general-purpose-ai-models-under-ai-act (verified: primary)

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

Cite this term

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

BibTeX

@misc{aige2026gpai,
  author  = {Jorge García Aibar},
  title   = {{GPAI}},
  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/gpai}
}