#  EU AI Act Prohibited Use Cases 

 



#  EU AI Act Prohibited Use Cases 

 Policies & guidelines 

 

 

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##  Overview 

The EU AI Act is a significant legislative framework adopted in 2024 to regulate the use of artificial intelligence technologies.

The Act governs 1) AI technologies that may be developed or used in the European Union, or whose output may be used in the European Union, and 2) the developers, importers, distributors, and deployers of these technologies. As part of its phased implementation, the first set of its provisions came into effect on February 2, 2025. These provisions define certain use cases which will be prohibited within the European Union, and require developers and deployers of AI systems to ensure a sufficient level of AI literacy among their staff.

The University’s activities will be subject to the Act in limited circumstances. This advisory serves to raise general awareness about the Act and its requirements.

As of February 2, 2025, the EU AI Act specifically prohibits placing on the market, putting into service in the EU, or use of AI systems in the EU in the following areas:

1. **AI systems that deploy subliminal techniques** beyond a person’s consciousness to materially distort a person’s behavior.
2. **AI systems that exploit vulnerabilities** of specific groups (e.g., age, physical or mental disability, or socioeconomic status) to materially distort a person’s behavior.
3. **AI systems that infer emotions** of natural persons in employment or educational settings.
4. **Creating or expanding facial recognition databases** through untargeted scraping of images from the internet or CCTV.
5. **Biometric categorization systems** that classify individuals based on biometric data or use such data to infer protected characteristics such as race, political opinions, trade union membership, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life or sexual orientation.
6. **Real-time biometric identification** used for law enforcement purposes in publicly accessible spaces.
7. **Social scoring by public authorities** where individuals are evaluated based on their social behavior, or perceived personality traits, leading to detrimental or discriminatory treatment.
8. **Predictions of criminal conduct** by law enforcement based on profiling, past criminal behavior, or other data that perpetuate bias or discrimination.

In addition, the Act designates certain uses of AI as high-risk and imposes specific restrictions and governance mechanisms on them. These uses include, but are not limited to, use of AI in certain employment related decisions, such as recruitment, filtering and evaluation of candidates, work allocation, performance or conduct evaluation, or promotion or termination decisions; and in the following educational applications:

- Any step in the admissions process to a school, program, or other educational offering with eligibility criteria.
- Evaluation of learning outcomes.
- Assessing the appropriate level of education that an individual is permitted or qualified to receive or access.
- Monitoring and detecting prohibited behavior during tests or other assessments.

All of the above restrictions are applicable at least to programs or activities carried out in the EU, or made available remotely to users within the EU, such as Executive Education programs or other distance learning courses.

If you are aware of any planned or current AI development or deployment that could potentially be used in one or more of the above areas – particularly if such use has a current or planned nexus to the EU as outlined above – you must initiate a compliance review by contacting [AI\_WorkingGroups\_EUAIACT@harvard.edu](mailto:AI_WorkingGroups_EUAIACT@harvard.edu).

This page will be updated with further advisories and guidance as additional requirements of the Act enter into force. In the meantime, should you have any questions about any of the above or require further assistance, please contact [AI\_WorkingGroups\_EUAIACT@harvard.edu](mailto:AI_WorkingGroups_EUAIACT@harvard.edu).