Published document record

Ethics Guidelines for Trustworthy AI

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Download PDF — 41 pages (1.56 MB)
Revised Ethics Guidelines presented on 8 April 2019, after consultation; complete 41-page official PDF, not the December 2018 draft.
Source: High-Level Expert Group on Artificial Intelligence; published by the European Commission. Retrieved 2026-09-10.
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SHA-256: 4a89863a96551bb3b9ce786afb1b1d58e8062f5a7fa3ed6748922550dde35e25

Official metadata

Official title: Ethics Guidelines for Trustworthy AI
Document type: Expert guidelines
Document date: 2019-04-08
Document date kind: Publication
Document-date evidence: European Commission · Ethics Guidelines PDF introductory field 'Document made public on 8 April 2019'. — Establishes 2019-04-08 as this exact record's publication-based document date.
Publication date: 2019-04-08
Publication-date evidence: European Commission · Commission library page metadata field 'Publication 08 April 2019' and final PDF 60419. — Establishes 2019-04-08 as first official publication for this exact version or release.
Legal status: Non binding
Language: en

Research classifications

These are researcher classifications used to organise and analyse the corpus; they are not official EU metadata.

Record level

Principal

Version status

Final

Temporal collection

Contemporary EU AI policy

Relevance class

Direct AI relevance

Policy stage

Consultation

Corpus tier

Core

Sectors

Policy membership

Classification evidence

Relevance class: Direct AI relevance · European Commission · Ethics Guidelines PDF chapters defining trustworthy AI and the seven requirements for lawful, ethical and robust AI. — The artifact directly governs, interprets, evaluates or operationalises EU artificial-intelligence policy rather than merely mentioning AI.
Sector tags: General cross sector · European Commission · Ethics Guidelines PDF chapters defining trustworthy AI and the seven requirements for lawful, ethical and robust AI. The cited scope applies horizontally to AI systems, models, providers, deployers or affected persons rather than one economic sector. — The retained general_cross_sector tag is supported by the artifact's horizontal AI-policy scope.
Provenance tags: Authored by an EU expert group · European Commission · PDF authorship/responsibility statement names the High-Level Expert Group on AI. — The text expressly assigns authorship and responsibility to the expert group.
Provenance tags: Officially published · European Commission · Commission library page metadata field 'Publication 08 April 2019' and final PDF 60419. — The exact version is distributed through an official EU institutional endpoint.

Production provenance

Provenance tags

Named bibliographic authors

High-Level Expert Group on Artificial Intelligence · European Commission · Commission page and linked PDF identify the High-Level Expert Group on AI as author.

Institutions and roles

European Commission · Publisher · role evidence · Commission library page officially publishes the expert-group document; hosting is not treated as authorship.
High-Level Expert Group on Artificial Intelligence · Author · role evidence · Official PDF identifies the High-Level Expert Group on AI as the author and states responsibility for the text.

Official sources and identifiers

Official source · Publisher/host: European Commission
Official source · Publisher/host: Publications Office of the European Union

Research assessment

Inclusion rationale: Core non-binding ethics framework that introduces the trustworthiness lens.
Researcher notes: Analytical assessment, not a claim about legal force.
Review status: verified

Relationships

Assessment List for Trustworthy AI (ALTAI) · Based on · Ethics Guidelines for Trustworthy AI

Official relationship · Verified

Official rationale: The Commission page states that ALTAI translates the Ethics Guidelines' key requirements into a self-assessment checklist.

Evidence source: European Commission
Building Trust in Human-Centric Artificial Intelligence · Based on · Ethics Guidelines for Trustworthy AI

Official relationship · Verified

Official rationale: COM(2019) 168 launches the piloting phase for the ethical guidance prepared by the High-Level Expert Group on AI.

Evidence source: European Commission / EUR-Lex
Automated decision-making: consumer protection and free movement · Related to · Ethics Guidelines for Trustworthy AI

Official relationship · Verified

Official rationale: Locator: PDF p.1, introductory citation naming Ethics Guidelines for Trustworthy AI, published on 8 April 2019. This records an explicit reference to the guidelines, not incorporation as binding requirements; the assessment list mentioned alongside them is not treated as a separate version here.

Evidence source: Publications Office of the European Union
Digital Education Action Plan 2021-2027 · Related to · Ethics Guidelines for Trustworthy AI

Official relationship · Verified

Official rationale: Locator: section 4.1, action 6, printed p.12 (PDF p.13), footnote 21. The planned educational guidance on AI and data use is stated to build on the Ethics Guidelines for Trustworthy AI. The relationship is limited to that action; the whole action plan is not a version of the guidelines or an implementation of the later AI Act.

Evidence source: Publications Office of the European Union
Robustness and explainability of artificial intelligence · Related to · Ethics Guidelines for Trustworthy AI

Official relationship · Verified

Official rationale: Locator: section 2.1, printed p.7 (PDF p.11), HLEG discussion citing [25,26]; reference [26], printed p.27, names Ethics Guidelines for Trustworthy AI. This records an explicit documentary reference, not endorsement of every recommendation or a causal contribution to later legislation.

Evidence source: European Commission

Verification

Expanded evidence review: Verified

Reviewed by: Yichen Hao
Evidence review date: 2026-09-05T18:07:46Z

The evidence review date is not a separate human sign-off date. Review credit and evidence-review actions

Last verified: 2026-09-05T17:58:09Z · Commission page records publication on 8 April 2019 and presentation by the High-Level Expert Group on AI. Live re-review by AI-assisted reviewer on 5 September 2026 checked the official endpoint and exact-version identity, substantive scope, relevant dates and institutional attribution; prior verification history and retrieved_at are retained.
Last verified: 2026-09-05T17:58:09Z · Official publication record provides the English PDF and identifies the Commission's Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology and the AI HLEG as corporate authors. Live re-review by AI-assisted reviewer on 5 September 2026 checked the official endpoint and exact-version identity, substantive scope, relevant dates and institutional attribution; prior verification history and retrieved_at are retained.

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