  Technological innovations have shown remarkable capabilities to benefit and
harm society alike. AI constitutes a democratized sophisticated technology
accessible to large parts of society, including malicious actors. This work
proposes a taxonomy focusing on on (geo)political risks associated with AI. It
identifies 12 risks in total divided into four categories: (1) Geopolitical
Pressures, (2) Malicious Usage, (3) Environmental, Social, and Ethical Risks,
and (4) Privacy and Trust Violations. Incorporating a regulatory side, this
paper conducts a policy assessment of the EU AI Act. Adopted in March 2023, the
landmark regulation has the potential to have a positive top-down impact
concerning AI risk reduction but needs regulatory adjustments to mitigate risks
more comprehensively. Regulatory exceptions for open-source models, excessively
high parameters for the classification of GPAI models as a systemic risk, and
the exclusion of systems designed exclusively for military purposes from the
regulation's obligations leave room for future action.
