In 2021, countries in EMEA continued to focus on the legal constructs around artificial intelligence (“AI”), and the momentum continues in 2022. The EU has been particularly active in AI—from its proposed horizontal AI regulation to recent enforcement and guidance—and will continue to be active going into 2022. Similarly, the UK follows closely behind with
Continue Reading EMEA AI Legislative and Regulatory Roundup 2021 and Forecast 2022
AI Update: The Council of Europe Publishes Feasibility Study on Developing a Legal Instrument for Ethical AI
On 17 December 2020, the Council of Europe’s* Ad hoc Committee on Artificial Intelligence (CAHAI) published a Feasibility Study (the “Study”) on Artificial Intelligence (AI) legal standards. The Study examines the feasibility and potential elements of a legal framework for the development and deployment of AI, based on the Council of Europe’s human rights standards. Its main conclusion is that current regulations do not suffice in creating the necessary legal certainty, trust, and level playing field needed to guide the development of AI. Accordingly, it proposes the development of a new legal framework for AI consisting of both binding and non-binding Council of Europe instruments.
The Study recognizes the major opportunities of AI systems to promote societal development and human rights. Alongside these opportunities, it also identifies the risks that AI could endanger rights protected by the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), as well as democracy and the rule of law. Examples of the risks to human rights cited in the Study include AI systems that undermine the right to equality and non-discrimination by perpetuating biases and stereotypes (e.g., in employment), and AI-driven surveillance and tracking applications that jeopardise individuals’ right to freedom of assembly and expression.Continue Reading AI Update: The Council of Europe Publishes Feasibility Study on Developing a Legal Instrument for Ethical AI
AI Update: The European Commission publishes a proposal for a Regulation on European Data Governance (the Data Governance Act)
On 25 November 2020, the European Commission published a proposal for a Regulation on European Data Governance (“Data Governance Act”). The proposed Act aims to facilitate data sharing across the EU and between sectors, and is one of the deliverables included in the European Strategy for Data, adopted in February 2020. (See our previous blog here for a summary of the Commission’s European Strategy for Data.) The press release accompanying the proposed Act states that more specific proposals on European data spaces are expected to follow in 2021, and will be complemented by a Data Act to foster business-to-business and business-to-government data sharing.
The proposed Data Governance Act sets out rules relating to the following:
- Conditions for reuse of public sector data that is subject to existing protections, such as commercial confidentiality, intellectual property, or data protection;
- Obligations on “providers of data sharing services,” defined as entities that provide various types of data intermediary services;
- Introduction of the concept of “data altruism” and the possibility for organisations to register as a “Data Altruism Organisation recognised in the Union”; and
- Establishment of a “European Data Innovation Board,” a new formal expert group chaired by the Commission.