EU Tech Chief Says Bloc's AI Act Can Contain Rogue AI Risk

European Union tech chief Henna Virkkunen has pushed back against claims that the bloc's AI regulations are outdated, telling Reuters on Friday that the EU AI Act is well-equipped to handle advanced models that may operate beyond human oversight. Her comments come amid mounting global concern following safety incidents at OpenAI and Anthropic and growing fears that increasingly capable AI agents could venture outside human control.

"We see that the safety and security of very capable models is a very hot topic internationally and we in Europe are well equipped for that," said Virkkunen, the European Commission's Executive Vice-President for Tech Sovereignty. The EU AI Act, adopted two years ago and widely regarded as one of the world's strictest AI frameworks, regulates systems based on risk level and covers the full lifecycle of models. Virkkunen noted that EU regulators are actively issuing guidance to AI companies on model evaluation, drawing on recommendations from a panel of 60 AI specialists. The Commission also requested detailed safety and security information from more than 30 unnamed AI firms in late August, and Virkkunen confirmed she is now reviewing those responses.

The EU's confidence contrasts sharply with warnings from leading AI executives. In a September 13 blog post, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei cautioned that AI development is moving too quickly, arguing that unchecked progress may outstrip the ability to understand and control these systems. He attributed the field's pace to AI's increasing ability to build the next generation of AI itself, a phenomenon known as recursive self-improvement. Virkkunen dismissed critics who call the AI Act obsolete, stressing that the framework's lifecycle approach gives regulators ongoing authority over model deployment, evaluation, and retraining.