TechREG® Chronicle – Artificial Intelligence

“I’m increasingly inclined to think that there should be some regulatory oversight, maybe at the national and international level, just to make sure that we don’t do something very foolish. I mean with artificial intelligence we’re summoning the demon.”

– Elon Musk at MIT’s AeroAstro Centennial Symposium

Dear Readers,

We are living in an increasingly AI-driven world. As is evident from the above, even proponents of AI like Elon Musk agree that regulatory oversight is needed for AI in its various facets. 

Yet the question is very complex. AI is not just one thing, and it permeates an increasing number of businesses. Firms from social media to consumer finance are integrating AI to the core of their operations. This raises myriad regulatory (not to mention ethical) issues across a number of domains, including antitrust, privacy, public sector transparency, credit regulation and many others. 

Legislatures, courts and regulators around the world are grappling with these issues in real time, as AI deployment continues. The pieces in this Chronicle address the state of the art in these regulatory challenges from a number of perspectives.

From a regulatory perspective, as is not uncommon, the EU institutions are leading the charge. A piece by Katerina Yordanova explores the main features and evolution of the proposal for an EU AI Act, and critically assesses some shortcomings that still need to be addressed. It concentrates on regulator