You bet someone in Brussels is working on that

> me.

For a large multinational company, probably.

I read the clause as more of a cya from them. I doubt Baidu is going to come after you if you use their model in the EU, but if Brussels has a problem with it Baidu wouldn’t be on the hook.

> Does the publisher of open model weights have any exposure to compliance requirements if it’s someone else using the software, and they aren’t distributing or operating there?

Nope, no international treaties exist in that area, regardless of what EU's wannabe dictators want you to think.