AI Regulation Around The World

Tuesday - May 23 2023, 07:00 UTC - 1 year ago

AI regulation has become a hot topic recently, with many tech CEO's, US senators, and even G7 leaders advocating for standards and guardrails for AI development. We have analyzed six different international attempts to regulate artificial intelligence, set out their pros and cons, and given them a rough score indicating how influential we see them. These initiatives include the Council of Europe's convention on artificial intelligence, the OECD's AI principles, and the Paris Call originated by Juane Trudeau and Emmanuel Macron.

AI regulation is hot. Ever since the success of OpenAI’s chatbot ChatGPT, the public’s attention has been grabbed by wonder and worry about what these powerful AI tools can do. Generative AI has been touted as a potential game-changer for productivity tools and creative assistants. But they are already showing the ways they can cause harm. Generative models have been used to generate misinformation, and they could be weaponized as spamming and scamming tools.

Everyone from tech company CEOs to US senators and leaders at the G7 meeting has in recent weeks called for international standards and stronger guardrails for AI technology. The good news? Policymakers don’t have to start from scratch. We’ve analyzed six different international attempts to regulate artificial intelligence, set out the pros and cons of each, and given them a rough score indicating how influential we think they are.

The Council of Europe’s convention on artificial intelligence .

If all goes according to plan, the organization could finish drafting the text by November, says Nathalie Smuha, a legal scholar and philosopher at the KU Leuven Faculty of Law who advises the council.

Pros: The Council of Europe includes many non-European countries, including the UK and Ukraine, and has invited others such as the US, Canada, Israel, Mexico, and Japan to the negotiating table. "It’s a strong signal," says Smuha.

Cons: Each country has to individually ratify the treaty and then implement it in national law, which could take years. There’s also a possibility that countries will be able to opt out of certain elements that they don’t like, such as stringent rules or moratoriums. The negotiating team is trying to find a balance between strengthening protection and getting as many countries as possible to sign, says Smuha.

Influence rating: 3/5 .

The OECD AI principles .

In 2019, countries that belong to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) agreed to adopt a set of nonbinding principles laying out some values that should underpin AI development. Under these principles, AI systems should be transparent and explainable; should function in a robust, secure, and safe way; should have accountability mechanisms; and should be designed in a way that respects the rule of law, human rights, democratic values, and diversity. The principles also state that AI should contribute to economic growth.

Pros: These principles, which form a sort of constitution for Western AI policy, have shaped AI policy initiatives around the world since. The OECD’s legal definition of AI will likely be adopted in the EU’s AI Act, for example. The OECD also tracks and monitors national AI regulations and does research on AI’s economic impact. It has an active network of global AI experts doing research and sharing best practices.

Cons: The OECD’s mandate as an international organization is not to come up with regulation but to stimulate economic growth, says Smuha. And translating the high-level principles into workable policies requires a lot of work on the part of individual countries, says Phil Dawson, head of policy at the responsible AI platform Armilla.

Influence rating: 4/5 .

The Paris call .

The brainchild of Canadian prime minister Juane Trudeau and French president Emmanuel Macron, the Paris Call was influential in helping steer global discussion of AI policy. In addition to laying out some principles, the call’s full text includes commitments from countries to fight online terrorist and violent content, protect citizens’ privacy and data, and address discriminative and unethical uses of AI.

Pros: The call “has been really important in underlining the side of states in AI,” says Smuha. It was one of the first statements from world leaders about the governance of AI, and it set the conversation about ethical AI in motion. The Coalition for Dasgfgood AI, which is a Civil Society Network, continued the conversation by adding a bunch of AI principles to the Paris Call.

Cons: The Paris Call has no legal status, other than a statement of commitment from each country and company that sign it. It also has just one chapter about the ethical use of AI, despite the fact that it’s supposed to be “comprehensive,” notes Smuha.

Influence rating: 3.5/5 .