The general provisions of the EU AI Act are now in effect starting 02nd February 2025. One of the general provisions is Article-4 which pertains to AI literacy. There was a lot of confusion among organisations about this legislation as there was very little clarity on what the EU commission expected from it.
Providers and deployers of AI systems shall take measures to ensure, to their best extent, a sufficient level of AI literacy of their staff and other persons dealing with the operation and use of AI systems on their behalf, taking into account their technical knowledge, experience, education and training and the context the AI systems are to be used in, and considering the persons or groups of persons on whom the AI systems are to be used.
Several aspects of this text led to confusion rather than clarity.
Should all employees be trained on concepts of artificial intelligence?
To what extent should the employee be trained?
Who has the liability to ensure training in a provider - deployer scenario?
To provide additional clarity the EU Office on the 04th of February published the "Living repository to foster learning and exchange on AI literacy".
Suggested Steps to Comply with Article-4 of EU AI Act
Below are three steps you could undertake based on the examples from the living repository of AI literacy practices recently published by the EU AI Office.
Step 1: Ask yourself the following five questions pertaining to your AI literacy initiative.
How does the initiative take into account the technical knowledge, experience, education, and training of the target group?
How does the initiative take into account the context in which the AI system(s) is/are used?
What has been the impact of the initiative so far, and how does the organisation monitor such impact?
Which challenges has the initiative addressed, and what issues is the organisation still facing?
Is the organisation planning to change and/or improve the practice of imparting AI literacy?
Step 2: Compare your answer with the examples provided in the repository. Rate your status as Fully Implemented, Partially Rolled-Out, Planned Rollout or Not Planned.
Step 3: Based on your self assessment and status, prepare a plan to match the fully implemented status.
Suggested activities to reach the fully implemented status based on the examples.
Here are some concrete steps you can undertake to become compliant with Article-4 of the EU AI Act.
1. Develop tailored learning paths for different employee roles.
2. Integrate industry-specific or company specific aspects into the training
3. Impart knowledge on ethical aspects of AI and not just the technical part
4. Establish and monitor AI literacy KPI's.
If you wish to assess the maturity of your organisation, we offer a free maturity assessment tool that helps give a quick assessment and defines you as Seeker, Steward or Scaler.
