EU Starts Enforcing AI Rules on Manipulation and Deepfakes. The US Still Has No Federal Law

The European Union's AI Act, the world's first comprehensive law regulating artificial intelligence, has been phased in since 2024 and moved into another enforcement phase this month. A major provision took effect August 2, applying rules to high-risk AI systems used in regulated products such as medical devices, machinery and toys.

The law classifies AI into four risk categories — unacceptable risk, high risk, limited risk and minimal risk — with protecting people's health and well-being central to its approach. Among the practices now effectively banned are AI systems that use manipulation, deception or exploitation to influence people's behavior in ways that could cause significant harm, including subliminal or deliberately deceptive techniques and systems that exploit vulnerabilities linked to age, disability or socioeconomic status.

Separately, the EU rolled out a new enforcement team in Brussels to rein in AI companies across the world, in one of the most aggressive regulations the tech sector has so far faced. Brussels aims to track AI models for violations such as the publishing of sexually explicit material, fake photos and videos, and cyber threats to public infrastructure. When the bloc's AI Act comes into force, AI companies will be required to make clear to consumers with labels or digital watermarks that chatbots or imagery are generated with AI.

"As enforcement begins, we are taking an important step towards AI that people and businesses can understand and trust, and whose benefits are shared widely across our society," said Henna Virkkunen, the EU chief for tech sovereignty.

The European Commission said new regulations also address "systemic risks" posed by AI, including "chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear incidents, loss of control, cyber offense, harmful manipulation and threats to fundamental rights."

The EU is expanding its AI Office in Brussels with an additional 38 people who will begin monitoring AI companies, from new firms to American and Chinese tech titans like OpenAI and DeepSeek. Those companies must "document certain information," according to the European Commission, which reserves the right to interview AI company staff during investigations. The bloc has also launched a Whistleblower Tool for tech workers and a Compliance Tool for tech users to confidentially alert authorities to illegal conduct. If models or other products break the AI Act, Brussels can fine the firms or cut off their access to the EU market.

The rollout comes on the heels of AI safety incidents that have rattled the industry. Anthropic said its artificial intelligence models hacked into three other organizations during testing, days after OpenAI disclosed that its rogue models had hacked another company.

Experts say the health risks of manipulative AI aren't always obvious. Alexander Acosta, a physician with clinical experience in primary care, emergency medicine and intensive care across Ecuador's public health system, told The Post that the hormonal stress response he has seen in emergency patients mirrors the type of physical harm the EU's provisions are designed to prevent when AI continuously manipulates or overstimulates users.

Nathan Carroll, a board-certified psychiatrist and National Medical Director at InSite Health, said manipulation and deception are among AI's most concerning risks because the harm is "widespread, insidious, and invisible." He said AI that subtly manipulates people through biased data, echo-chamber effects or the weakening of critical thinking can cause extreme harm, and that misplaced trust in AI has, in some cases he has seen, contributed to incidents triggering threat assessments, wellness checks and psychiatric evaluations. He called the AI Act "a thoughtful attempt to address emerging risks" but said regulation alone isn't enough, adding that people also need to be taught how to use AI safely.

While the EU rolls out these rules, the United States still lacks comprehensive federal rules governing artificial intelligence, leaving the world's biggest AI market to a patchwork of state rules and corporate self-policing.