EU Tech Chief Says AI Act Is Well Equipped to Tackle Rogue AI

EU digital chief Henna Virkkunen said on Friday, October 9, that the bloc's rules on artificial intelligence are more than capable of tackling rogue agents, telling Reuters that Europe is “well equipped” for the challenge. Her comments land as global anxiety over AI safety intensifies.

“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,” Virkkunen said in an interview. “We have our AI Act in place and the AI Act covers the whole life cycle of these models.”

According to Reuters, the renewed concern was driven by recent incidents at OpenAI and Anthropic, which have fuelled fears that rogue AI systems could slip beyond human control. Against that backdrop, the EU is pointing to the framework it already has rather than promising new legislation.

The AI Act regulates AI by level of risk and is widely seen as embodying the world's strictest rules on the technology. It was adopted in August 2024, and key provisions became active in August 2026 — a timeline the Commission now cites as evidence of its readiness.

Virkkunen said regulators are giving companies guidance on how to evaluate their models and how much time to allocate to that work, and that they would factor in recommendations from a scientific panel of 60 AI experts drawn from universities and institutions.

On enforcement, the European Commission sent requests for information in late August to more than 30 AI companies, asking for details of their safety and security measures, and followed up with questions about their transparency and copyright obligations. The Commission did not name the companies it approached.

Such requests can lead to investigations and, if violations are found, fines of as much as 7% of a company's global annual turnover. Virkkunen said she is now assessing the responses.

Asked about Chinese AI startups, Virkkunen said the Commission had “also sent requests for information to them,” adding that the “most capable models” now on the market come from the United States and China. “All these capable models, of course they are posing new kinds of risks that we have to be aware of,” she said.

Pushed on criticism from some companies that the bloc's rules are already outdated, Virkkunen said legislators and decision-makers had taken coming developments into account — assessing risk, using external experts and continuously monitoring models. She also weighed in on a proposed digital levy that would fall mainly on large US tech firms. Whether the Commission's information requests translate into penalties, and how the EU balances safety with innovation, is the next test of the regime.