China’s new Internet recommender system regulations go into effect today, March 1, 2022. U.S. companies that employ recommender and similar content decision algorithms in their apps and websites used in China should already be in compliance. For those that are still evaluating their policies and practices and want to...
Recent News and Analysis
Transparency, Recommender Systems, and a Missed Opportunity for Lawmakers
Social media companies may be feeling relief after Indiana lawmakers dropped a transparency requirement from a proposed state consumer privacy bill, SB358, which in its introduced form contained the following potentially controversial disclosure requirement (relevant portion shown): Chapter 2. Disclosure of Social Media Administrative Procedures Sec. 1. (a)...
Brainwaves, Plagiarism, Manufactured Evidence, and AI Source Code Theft: A Trade Secrets Story
Aside from a few criminal cases involving national technology secrets, trade secret lawsuits, by their nature, don’t often grab headlines. Mostly they involve unremarkable factual and legal issues involving misappropriation of company proprietary information. Not so the case of Brainwave v. Arshee, where the facts and bold allegations by...
Are Europe’s Proposed AI Regulations Tough Enough?
The European Commission’s proposed new regulations for artificial intelligence (AI) technologies and systems (link to PDF here; issued April 21, 2021) include enforcement provisions that would empower public authorities to monitor regulated AI entities operating in the European Union (EU) and seek stiff fines from those that do not...
Approaching Applicability of Europe’s Proposed AI Regulations as a Classification Task
The European Commission cast a wide regulatory net over artificial intelligence (AI) technologies and practices last month when it proposed new rules for AI on April 21, 2021 (link to PDF here). For those in the U.S. wondering whether the future rules might apply to them, the answer may...
Proposed New EU AI Regulations: A Pre-Planning Guide for U.S. In-House Counsel
If the European Commission’s newly proposed harmonized rules on Artificial Intelligence (the “Artificial Intelligence Act”) (published April 21, 2021) are adopted, U.S.-based AI companies operating in European Union (EU) countries (or expecting to do so) may soon be subject to significant new regulatory requirements. The proposed regulations (available PDF...
Artificial Intelligence and Trust: Improving Transparency and Explainability Policies to Reverse Data Hyper-Localization Trends
In this peer-reviewed article (Journal of Science and Law; open source), my co-author and I discuss how access to data is an essential part of artificial intelligence (AI) technology development efforts. But government and corporate actors have increasingly imposed localized and hyper-localized restrictions on data due to rising mistrust—the...
FTC Orders AI Company to Delete its Model Following Consumer Protection Law Violation
The nation’s consumer protection watchdog–the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)–took extraordinary law enforcement measures on January 11, 2021, after finding an artificial intelligence company had deceived customers about its data collection and use practices. In a first of its kind settlement involving facial recognition surveillance systems, the FTC ordered Everalbum,...