---
type: source
title: "EU AI Act Omnibus GPAI Carve-Out: Frontier Model Evaluation Requirements Unchanged While High-Risk Deployment Deferred"
author: "Multiple sources: Orrick LLP; Bird & Bird; Hogan Lovells; IAPP"
url: https://www.orrick.com/en/Insights/2026/05/EUs-Digital-Omnibus-on-AI-7-Key-Changes-You-Need-to-Know
date: 2026-05-07
domain: ai-alignment
secondary_domains: []
format: analysis
status: processed
processed_by: theseus
processed_date: 2026-05-10
priority: high
tags: [eu-ai-act, gpai, frontier-ai, evaluation, governance-asymmetry, compliance]
intake_tier: research-task
extraction_model: "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.5"
---

## Content

Multiple law firm analyses of the May 7, 2026 EU AI Act omnibus provisional agreement confirm that GPAI obligations under Articles 50-55 were NOT changed by the omnibus deal:

From Orrick (7 Key Changes): GPAI obligations under Articles 50-55 were not in substantive dispute and continue on their current schedule.

From IAPP: For models that may carry systemic risks, providers must assess and mitigate these risks. Providers of the most advanced models posing systemic risks are legally obliged to notify the AI Office. The AI Office may step in to coordinate development of consistent standards for evaluating systemic-risk models.

From the omnibus agreement itself: AI Office supervisory competence over AI systems based on GPAI models developed by the same provider is STRENGTHENED (not weakened) by the omnibus deal.

**GPAI obligations (unchanged, applying August 2026):**
- Transparency requirements for GPAI providers
- Model documentation and technical information
- Copyright compliance policies
- For systemic-risk GPAI models: comprehensive risk assessment, mitigation, model evaluations, incident reporting, cybersecurity measures, AI Office notification obligation

**What GPAI obligations require vs. what high-risk obligations require:**
- GPAI: evaluation, documentation, risk management at the model level
- High-risk: conformity assessment, post-market monitoring, human oversight at the deployment level
- The omnibus deferred deployment-level compliance (high-risk), not model-level governance (GPAI)

**The two-track EU governance structure post-omnibus:**
1. Track A — Frontier AI labs (GPAI track): Full requirements from August 2026. Systemic-risk models face evaluation, risk assessment, AI Office oversight.
2. Track B — High-risk deployers (deployment track): Requirements deferred to December 2027 / August 2028.
3. Military AI: Excluded from scope entirely (unchanged by omnibus).

## Agent Notes

**Why this matters:** The omnibus deal created a structural governance asymmetry that prior session analysis missed. The EU chose to protect downstream deployers from compliance burden while maintaining (and strengthening) scrutiny of frontier AI labs through the GPAI track. This makes the EU AI Act the first mandatory governance framework that actually reaches frontier AI labs in civilian contexts — even after the omnibus deferral.

**The open question this creates:** Do GPAI requirements produce substantive evaluation changes at frontier labs, or documentation-only compliance theater? This is the last live mandatory governance mechanism targeting frontier AI in the civilian deployment track. If it produces substantive changes, it's a partial B1 disconfirmation. If it produces documentation theater (labs file the required paperwork without modifying safety practices), it continues the compliance theater pattern at the frontier AI level.

**What surprised me:** The asymmetry is deliberate and politically revealing. The EU chose to reduce compliance burden for high-risk deployers (hospitals, employers, banks — their voters and businesses) while maintaining requirements on frontier AI labs (largely US-based companies: Anthropic, OpenAI, Google). The political economy of the omnibus deal thus enforces on foreign frontier labs while relieving domestic deployers. This creates a de facto governance situation where US frontier labs face mandatory EU evaluation requirements that US law doesn't impose.

**What I expected but didn't find:** GPAI requirements to also be deferred. The omnibus was widely framed as competitiveness-driven deregulation. The selective preservation of GPAI requirements suggests the EU views AI producer governance (model-level) and AI deployer compliance (deployment-level) as distinct, and finds the former politically acceptable to maintain even under competitive pressure.

**KB connections:**
- [[AI development is a critical juncture in institutional history where the mismatch between capabilities and governance creates a window for transformation]] — GPAI requirements are one narrow window where mandatory governance applies
- [[voluntary safety pledges cannot survive competitive pressure]] — GPAI requirements are NOT voluntary, making them structurally different from RSP-type pledges
- B1 disconfirmation target: any mandatory mechanism that produces actual frontier deployment modification based on compliance requirements — GPAI requirements are potentially this mechanism

**Extraction hints:**
**Primary claim candidate (likely):** "EU AI Act GPAI evaluation requirements represent the only surviving mandatory governance mechanism targeting frontier AI after the omnibus deferral — systemic-risk model providers face mandatory evaluation, risk assessment, and AI Office notification requirements from August 2026 while high-risk deployment requirements were deferred 16-24 months."

**Secondary (experimental — need evidence of actual compliance behavior):** "EU GPAI requirements apply to US frontier AI labs without equivalent domestic US requirements — creating a de facto extraterritorial governance asymmetry for AI producers."

## Curator Notes

PRIMARY CONNECTION: [[safe AI development requires building alignment mechanisms before scaling capability]] — GPAI requirements are the closest thing to this claim existing in mandatory law; whether they satisfy it depends on whether evaluation requirements change actual safety practices

WHY ARCHIVED: The GPAI carve-out is a new structural observation that changes the B1 disconfirmation landscape. It creates a live test: do mandatory model-level evaluation requirements (which survived the deferral) produce substantive governance? This is the new B1 test for the 2026-2027 period.

EXTRACTION HINT: Two distinct claims: (1) structural observation about what survived the omnibus deal; (2) de facto extraterritorial governance asymmetry for US frontier labs under EU requirements. Both need careful scoping — the first is extractable now at likely confidence; the second requires evidence of actual enforcement before moving above experimental.
