On January 28, 2020, The Council of Europe (CoE) adopted a new set of guidelines on facial recognition addressed to governments, legislators and businesses. The guidelines were developed by the Consultative Committee of the Council of Europe, after a 7-year process, that resulted in the updating of Convention 108

On January 20, 2020, the Legal Affairs Committee of the European Parliament (EP) adopted a resolution which includes new guidelines for the use of artificial intelligence (AI) for civil and military use.

The Ad Hoc Committee on Artificial Intelligence of the Council of Europe adopted their first feasibility study on a legal framework on AI.

On December 7, 2020, the European Commission (EC) registered and approved a request for a European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) entitled Reclaim Your Face: Ban Biometric Mass Surveillance.

On December 14, 2020, during their online conference entitled “Doing AI the European way: Protecting fundamental rights in an era of artificial intelligence”, the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) presented their new report : Getting the future right – Artificial intelligence and fundamental rights.

On December 10, 2020, the Legal Affairs Committee of the European Parliament (EP) adopted new guidelines on the use of AI for military purposes and its use in the health and justice sectors.

On November 27, 2020, Brigadier-General Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, the head of the Iranian military’s nuclear program, was shot and killed in a convoy outside Tehran.

On December 2, 2020, the President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, officially presented one of the fundamental proposals of the Spain Digital Plan 2025 launched last July and one of the most principal components of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan for the Spanish economy; the National Artificial Intelligence Strategy.

On November 19, 2020, the United-Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI) Centre for AI and Robotics released its latest collaborative report on Malicious Uses and Abuses of Artificial Intelligence

On November 17, 2020, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in the White House released a “Memorandum for the heads of executive departments agencies” to provide “guidance to all Federal agencies to inform the development of regulatory and non-regulatory approaches regarding technologies and industrial sectors that are empowered or enable by artificial intelligence (AI) and consider ways to reduce barriers to the development and adoption of AI technologies”.

It is the ALICEM application’s use of biometric data that has been challenged by an association at the French Supreme Administrative Court and a decision has just been announced.

On April 1st -2nd, 2021, a colloquium will take place on Artificial Intelligence and Normative Challenges: International and Comparative Legal Perspectives, organised by The Faculty of Law at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and the Kalliopi Koufa Foundation for the Promotion of International and Human Rights Law, with the support of the European Society of International Law (ESIL).