In June 2022, the Ada Lovelace institute published an ‘Independent legal review of the governance of biometric data in England and Wales’ written by Matthew Ryder. This review aims to address the current legal uncertainty concerning the collection, use and processing of biometric data in England and Wales. It also puts forward 10 recommendations to improve the legal framework as well as the governance of biometrics in England and Wales.

At a time when ad hoc legislation on AI is being negotiated at the European level, the French Senate published on May 10, 2022, a report proposing regulations on biometric recognition in public spaces. The purpose of this report is to put forward a framework for facial recognition experimentation and to reinforce French and European technological sovereignty.

In 2019, Buenos Aires City Council introduced the ‘Facial Recognition for Fugitives System’ (Sistema de Reconocimiento Facial de Prófugos (SNRP)), which involved deploying 9,500 surveillance cameras equipped with facial recognition technology.

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.

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.