The EU AI Act Newsletter #111: Pacing the Frontier

<p> Von der Leyen puts frontier AI risk at the centre of her State of the Union address, while the AI Office confirms OpenAI did not file a report on the RubyGems incident.</p> <p> Welcome to The EU AI Act Newsletter, a brief biweekly newsletter by the Future of Life Institute, bringing you the latest developments and analyses on the EU's artificial intelligence law.</p><p><strong> Developments</strong></p><p> 2026 State of the Union address: Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, describes artificial intelligence as the second tipping point of our times and a foundational layer for Europe's economy and security, arguing that AI's possibilities can only be unlocked if its risks are addressed. Those risks, she notes, have sharpened as frontier models advance, from hacking capabilities soon available to adversaries to the dangers of self-improving models, with agents escaping their environments or inserting malicious code offering only a glimpse. After the Hugging Face incident, developers are ringing the alarm and leading company CEOs are calling for a slowdown on self-recursive models. In response, she presents the AI Act as a crucial guardrail, promises cooperation with Canada, the United Kingdom and others on model evaluation, verification, early warning and AI security [...]</p> <p>---</p><p><strong>Outline:</strong></p><p>(00:39) Developments</p><p>(04:18) Analyses</p> <p>---</p>
<p><b>First published:</b><br/>
September 23rd, 2026 </p>

<p><b>Source:</b><br/>
<a href="artificialintelligenceact.substack.com/p/the-e…; rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">artificialintelligenceact.substack.com/p/the-e…; </p>
<p>---</p>
<p>Narrated by <a href="type3.audio/?utm_source=TYPE_III_AUDIO&utm…; rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">TYPE III AUDIO</a>.</p>
<p>---</p><div style="max-width: 100%";><p><strong>Images from the article:</strong></p><a href="substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!6JM8!,w_1456,c…; target="_blank"><img src="substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!6JM8!,w_1456,c…; alt="News article screenshot. The headline reads: "EXCLUSIVE: OpenAI didn't report safety incident under EU AI rules". Subheading: "European Commission says it's assessing AI labs' recent safety improvements"." style="max-width: 100%;" /></a><p><em>Apple Podcasts and Spotify do not show images in the episode description. Try <a href="pocketcasts.com/"; target="_blank" rel="noreferrer">Pocket Casts</a>, or another podcast app.</em></p></div>