The EU AI Act and the Food System: How the European Union Ai Act Applies to Agrifood

Abstract Artificial Intelligence (AI) is increasingly being used in the agrifood sector to improve efficiency, safety and sustainability. The application of the European Union Artificial Intelligence Act’s (AI Act) to the broad spectrum of agrifood AI systems has not been thoroughly analyzed. Therefore, this research article explores the AI Act’s application to the agrifood sector by providing an overview of AI systems in the sector and applying the AI Act’s risk-categorisation system to them. Section II provides an outline of the AI Act and its risk categorisation system. Section III gives an overview of agrifood AI systems and explains how the AI Act applies to them. The AI Act is most significantly applicable to AI safety components that are used in agricultural or agroforestry vehicles and other machinery. Although not many, there are also some types of agrifood AI systems that will be prohibited and that will have special transparency requirements under the AI Act. The paper also identifies potential sector-specific challenges such as a risk to food security, an open question regarding the extensiveness of the meaning of ‘AI safety component’ and the inattention of the AI Act to non-human centred values such as the environment, biodiversity and animal welfare.