EU AI Act Enters Active Enforcement Phase With Expanded Compliance Monitoring

Summary

On February 2, 2026, the European Union began active enforcement of the AI Act, marking the one-year anniversary of the prohibition on "unacceptable risk" AI practices such as social scoring and emotion recognition in workplaces and education. This date also triggered the European Commission's first mandatory review of Article 5 prohibitions, which may expand the list of banned AI applications based on evidence of emerging risks. The Commission has signaled that predictive policing, educational