Updates on developments in data privacy and cybersecurity
Earlier this week, Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) cast their votes in favor of the much-anticipated AI Act. With 523 votes in favor, 46 votes against, and 49 abstentions, the vote is a culmination of an effort that began in April 2021, when the EU Commission first published its proposal for the Act.
Here’s what lies ahead:Continue Reading EU Parliament Adopts AI Act
On February 13, 2024, the European Parliament’s Committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection and its Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (the “Parliament Committees”) voted overwhelmingly to adopt the EU’s proposed AI Act. This follows a vote to approve the text earlier this month by the Council of Ministers’ Permanent Representatives Committee (“Coreper“). This brings the Act closer to final; the last step in the legislative process is a vote by the full European Parliament, currently scheduled to take place in April 2024.
The compromise text approved by Coreper and the Parliament Committees includes a number of significant changes as compared to earlier drafts. In this blog post, we set out some key takeaways.Continue Reading EU AI Act: Key Takeaways from the Compromise Text
On January 24, 2024, the European Commission (“Commission”) announced that, following the political agreement reached in December 2023 on the EU AI Act (“AI Act”) (see our previous blog here), the Commission intends to proceed with a package of measures (“AI Innovation Strategy”) to support AI startups and small and medium-size enterprises (“SMEs”) in the EU.
Alongside these measures, the Commission also announced the creation of the European AI Office (“AI Office”), which is due to begin formal operations on February 21, 2024.
This blog post provides a high-level summary of these two announcements, in addition to some takeaways to bear in mind as we draw closer to the adoption of the AI Act.Continue Reading European Commission Announces New Package of AI Measures
On January 30, 2024, the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) published a request for information (RFI) soliciting public input on how agencies can be more effective in their use of privacy impact assessments (PIAs) to mitigate privacy risks, including those “exacerbated by artificial intelligence (AI).” The RFI notes that federal agencies may develop or procure AI-enabled systems from the private sector that are developed or tested using personal identifiable information (PII), or systems that process or use PII in their operation. Among other things, the RFI seeks comment on the risks “specific to the training, evaluation, or use of AI and AI-enabled systems” that agencies should consider in conducting PIAs of those systems. Continue Reading OMB Publishes Request for Information on Agency Privacy Impact Assessments
U.S. policymakers have continued to express interest in legislation to regulate artificial intelligence (“AI”), particularly at the state level. Although comprehensive AI bills and frameworks in Congress have received substantial attention, state legislatures also have been moving forward with their own efforts to regulate AI. This blog post summarizes key themes in state AI bills introduced in the past year. Now that new state legislative sessions have commenced, we expect to see even more activity in the months ahead.Continue Reading Trends in AI: U.S. State Legislative Developments
On January 29, 2024, the Department of Commerce (“Department”) published a proposed rule (“Proposed Rule”) to require providers and foreign resellers of U.S. Infrastructure-as-a-Service (“IaaS”) products to (i) verify the identity of their foreign customers and (ii) notify the Department when a foreign person transacts with that provider or reseller to train a large artificial intelligence (“AI”) model with potential capabilities that could be used in malicious cyber-enabled activity. The proposed rule also contemplates that the Department may impose special measures to be undertaken by U.S. IaaS providers to deter foreign malicious cyber actors’ use of U.S. IaaS products. The accompanying request for comments has a deadline of April 29, 2024.Continue Reading Department of Commerce Issues Proposed Rule to Regulate Infrastructure-as-a-Service Providers and Resellers
On 15 January 2024, the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (“ICO”) announced the launch of a consultation series (“Consultation”) on how elements of data protection law apply to the development and use of generative AI (“GenAI”). For the purposes of the Consultation, GenAI refers to “AI models that can create new content e.g., text, computer code, audio, music, images, and videos”.
As part of the Consultation, the ICO will publish a series of chapters over the coming months outlining their thinking on how the UK GDPR and Part 2 of the Data Protection Act 2018 apply to the development and use of GenAI. The first chapter, published in tandem with the Consultation’s announcement, covers the lawful basis, under UK data protection law, for web scraping of personal data to train GenAI models. Interested stakeholders are invited to provide feedback to the ICO by 1 March 2024.Continue Reading ICO Launches Consultation Series on Generative AI
On January 9, the FTC published a blog post discussing privacy and confidentiality obligations for companies that provide artificial intelligence (“AI”) services. The FTC described “model-as-a-service” companies as those that develop, host, and provide pre-trained AI models to users and businesses through end-user interfaces or application programming interfaces (“APIs”). According to the FTC, when model-as-a-service…
A new post on the Covington Inside Global Tech blog discusses key 1Q24 deadlines under the Biden administration’s October 2023 Executive Order on Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence.
Several agencies are expected to satisfy milestones related to the Executive Order’s key requirements in the coming months. For example, the Secretary…
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