Earlier this month, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), a civil law enforcement agency, published a settlement order requiring WW International, Inc. (formerly known as Weight Watchers) and its subsidiary Kurbo to delete the personal data illegally collected from children under 13 and to destroy any algorithm or AI model built using such data.

On March 7th, 2022, the Center for a New American Security held a workshop on Transatlantic Artificial Intelligence, which gathered together senior researchers, PhD candidates, NGO members, Institutional representatives and AI professionals from both sides of the Atlantic to discuss the future of Euro-American relationships as regards AI-related matters.

Aiming to raise awareness about the effects of AI on women, and to outline the challenges and opportunities emerging from AI technologies, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the Inter-American Development Bank (IAD), and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) came together to examine the effects of the use of AI on the working lives of women.

On November 16th, 2021, the Future of Privacy Forum, in partnership with the Brussels Privacy Hub, organised the 2021 Brussels Privacy Symposium entitled ‘The Age of AI Regulation: Global Strategic Directions’. This symposium marked one of the first opportunities to discuss the AI Regulation Chair’s current project, which aims to map the use of facial recognition in public places in Europe.

The Center for AI and Digital Policy, a non-profit organisation based in Washington DC, issued a statement on March 1st 2022 supporting the Ukrainian people and alerting the World as to the dangers that AI might pose during the conflict.

With the rapid development of technology, artificial intelligence is becoming more and more sophisticated. This trend has led States to be concerned about the possible consequences that this technology may have on society.

On January 4th, 2022, the regulation “Provisions on the Management of Algorithmic Recommendations in Internet Information Services” was adopted by China. This text will enter into force on March 1st. It follows an initial draft presented by China’s Cyberspace Administration in August 2021 and it seeks to regulate algorithms, especially those that will be employed for ‘recommendation’ purposes such as those used in search filters, social media, online stores, content services or gig work platforms.

To contribute to the debate around the use and appropriate regulation of Facial Recognition Technologies, AI Regulation and Skopai have engaged in a unique partnership in order to map the current landscape of start-ups developing facial recognition technologies.

A few weeks ago, the 120 State parties to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) met in Geneve for the 6th Review of the Convention. The discussion about the use of lethal autonomous weapons systems (LAWS) was on the top of the agenda.

From November 30 to December 2nd 2021, the Council of Europe’s Ad hoc Committee on Artificial Intelligence (CAHAI) held its final plenary meeting. In this session, the recommendation on the “Possible elements of a legal framework on artificial intelligence, based on the Council of Europe’s standards on human rights, democracy and the rule of law” was adopted.

On November 24, 2021, during the 41st session of UNESCO’s General Conference, the “Recommendation on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence” was adopted. This is the first global “standard-setting instrument” that seeks to regulate the use of AI in an ethical way, although some initiatives were taken in the European context. The project came about due to a decision made at the General Conference at its 40th session in 2019.

The European Commission’s April 2021 proposal for a Regulation aiming at harmonized rules across the EU for AI is a major legal development and the negotiations at the EU level will be particularly interesting and tough. Renaissance Numérique and AI-Regulation contribute to the debate.