Scope exclusion
Article 2 excludes the AI Act's application in several distinct cases: systems developed and used exclusively for military, defence or national security purposes; systems developed and put into service exclusively for scientific research and development; research and testing activity prior to placing on the market; and a natural person's purely personal, non-professional use. Each exclusion must be interpreted narrowly and by reference to its specific purpose.
The exclusions are listed in Article 2(3)–(6), (8) and (10). The most common misunderstanding concerns the exemption for personal use: this exclusion applies only to a natural person, never to a company — a sole trader's or an SME's use of AI qualifies as a professional activity, even on a small scale. The scientific research exclusion is likewise narrow: it applies only to the research and development activity itself, and does not extend to a commercial product that results from that research once placed on the market. The exclusion for research and testing prior to placing on the market gives developers the opportunity to test a system under real-world conditions before assuming the full conformity-assessment burden — this exclusion, too, lasts only as long as the system is not actually placed on the market.
The "we only use it for personal purposes" argument never applies to a company — many SMEs mistakenly invoke it for a small, internal AI experiment, when the exclusion applies only to a private individual.
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Start freeRelated terms
- AI systemAn AI system is a machine-based system that operates with varying levels of autonomy and, from the input it receives, infers how to generate outputs such as predictions, content, recommendations or decisions that can influence physical or virtual environments. The decisive test is inferential capability — a deterministic, human-authored rule set is not an AI system merely because it automates a task.
- Open-source exemptionArticle 2(12) exempts AI systems released under a free and open-source licence from the AI Act, but carves that exemption back for systems placed on the market as high-risk, and for those covered by Articles 5 and 50. For GPAI models, Article 53(2) grants a narrower exemption, covering only certain obligations — and even this exemption falls away where systemic risk is present.
- Authorised representativeAn authorised representative is a person established in the Union and mandated in writing by a third-country provider to act on the provider's behalf towards Union authorities. A non-EU provider typically must appoint such a representative — as a condition of entering the Union market — before placing its system on the market.
Related questions in the knowledge base (Hungarian)
- Milyen esetekben nem kell alkalmazni az EU AI Act-et?A 2. cikk több önálló kizárást ad: a kizárólag katonai, védelmi vagy nemzetbiztonsági célú rendszerek, a kizárólag tudományos kutatás-fejlesztés céljára fejlesztett rendszerek, a forgalomba hozatal előtti kutatás és tesztelés, valamint a természetes személy tisztán személyes, nem szakmai használata. Mindegyiket szűken, célhoz kötötten kell értelmezni.
- Vonatkozik az EU AI Act egy Európán kívüli cégre?Igen, két önálló kapcsolóelv alapján. A 2. cikk (1) bekezdés a) pontja az uniós piacra hozatalt köti a hatályhoz, a székhelytől függetlenül. A c) pont ennél tovább megy: a harmadik országbeli szolgáltatóra és alkalmazóra is kiterjed, ha az AI-rendszer kimenetét az Unióban használják.