The Machinery Directive is the core piece of EU legislation for the mechanical engineering industry: it promotes the free movement of machinery within the Internal Market, while setting out the'Essential Health and Safety Requirements' to be observed when placing a machine on the market for the first time. The mechanical engineering companies Orgalim represents really value this Directive: in addition to ensuring a high level of safety for employees and end users, it has provided a stable legal environment for businesses since it came into force over a decade ago. Particularly for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), this stability is invaluable. In the last year or two, however, the European Commission has been exploring the possibility of reviewing the Directive – prompted primarily by new developments in technologies like artificial intelligence (AI). AI has climbed up the political agenda in recent years, reflecting public concerns that this technology is somehow different; that, in the most dramatic scenarios, systems deploying AI could start to act autonomously and provoke new, unmanageable dangers.