AI Vocabulary · 08 Rules & Responsibility
What is Provider (EU AI Act)?
Under the EU AI Act, whoever develops an AI system or model, or has it developed, and offers it under their own name. Providers carry the most duties.
The EU AI Act assigns duties by role. A provider is a person or organisation that develops an AI system or a general-purpose AI model, or has one developed, and places it on the market or puts it into service under its own name or trademark, whether for payment or free of charge (Article 3).
This is a legal role, not the same as a model provider in everyday speech. A startup that builds an app on top of someone else's model and sells it under its own brand is the provider of that app.
You can also become a provider without planning to. For high-risk AI systems, Article 25 names three cases in which a deployer, distributor or importer is treated as the provider: when they put their name or trademark on a high-risk system already on the market, when they make a substantial modification so that it remains high-risk, or when they change the intended purpose of a system, including a general-purpose one, so that it becomes high-risk.
Why it matters for you
Providers carry the main obligations: documentation, risk management, conformity and information for users. Knowing whether you are one is the first compliance question for anything you build.
Own it
For each AI product you offer, note who the provider is: you, or the company whose product you resell. Be careful when rebranding or repurposing tools, especially in high-risk areas. This entry is an overview, not legal advice.
Where it comes from
The definition is Article 3(3) and the change of role is Article 25 of Regulation (EU) 2024/1689, both readable on the Commission's AI Act Service Desk.
Related
Your AI Learning Hub
Learn the whole AI Vocabulary, step by step, and build with it. Build it. Own it.