EU publishes Digital Omnibus reforming the AI Act

Application deadlines for high-risk AI slip by up to a year; at the same time new prohibitions on non-consensual intimate material and child sexual abuse material apply from 2 December 2026.

Regulation (EU) 2026/1744 of 8 July 2026 was published in the Official Journal on 24 July 2026 and enters into force on the third day thereafter (27 July 2026). It amends the AI Act (Regulation (EU) 2024/1689) as well as the aviation regulation ((EU) 2018/1139) and the machinery regulation ((EU) 2023/1230). Its core is a deferral of the application dates for high-risk systems: Annex III systems now apply from 2 December 2027 and Annex I systems from 2 August 2028, justified by delayed standardisation work and the still-incomplete national supervisory and conformity-assessment framework. At the same time Article 5 is extended with prohibitions on AI systems that generate or manipulate non-consensual intimate material or child sexual abuse material (applicable from 2 December 2026).