What criteria determines if a company is a 'provider'?

Under the EU AI Act, a company (or any natural or legal person, public authority, or agency) is primarily defined as a provider if it meets the following core criteria:

• -It develops an AI system or a general-purpose AI model, or it has an AI system or model developed for it.
• -It places that system or model on the market or puts it into service under its own name or trademark.
• -This applies regardless of whether the system is provided for payment or free of charge.

When other entities become "providers"

The Act also recognizes that roles can shift along the AI value chain. A company that initially acts as a distributor, importer, deployer, or other third party will be legally considered a provider of a high-risk AI system - and must assume all provider obligations - if it does any of the following:

• -Rebranding: It puts its own name or trademark on a high-risk AI system that has already been placed on the market or put into service.
• -Substantial modification: It makes a substantial modification to an existing high-risk AI system in a way that it remains classified as a high-risk system.
• -Changing the intended purpose: It modifies the intended purpose of an AI system (including a general-purpose AI system) that was not originally classified as high-risk, in such a way that the modification turns it into a high-risk AI system.

Product manufacturers

Additionally, if a high-risk AI system functions as a safety component for a regulated product (such as machinery or medical devices), the product manufacturer is legally considered the "provider" of the AI system if the system is placed on the market or put into service under the manufacturer's name or trademark alongside the product.