Welcome to the AI Observer, HLK's newsletter tracking the AI legal landscape.
In the latest instalment, our AI experts break down the key provisions of the EU Data Act, its impact on businesses, and why early compliance is crucial. Our experts also report on the recent developments during the implementation of the AI Act including the opening of the EU's AI office, the similar processes to the AI Act being implemented in the US and the latest AI copyright lawsuits filed by the world's biggest record labels.
Did you miss the previous issue of the AI Observer? Check out all our previous issues and other AI updates here.
EU Data Act: A game changer for IoT?
With the increasing prevalence of the internet of things (IoT), there is an abundance of data being collected – but how do we ensure fair use is made of this data, and not only by a select few entities who rule the data markets? That's where the EU Data Act comes in.
William Dearn and Caroline Day break down the key provisions of the Data Act, its impact on businesses, and why early compliance is crucial.
Read the full article here.
Legislation watch
As implementation of the AI Act is now under way, the European Union (EU) officially opened its new AI Office. The Office is split into five units: Excellence in AI and Robotics; Regulation and Compliance; AI Safety; AI Innovation and Policy Coordination; and AI for Societal Good. The AI Office is tasked with developing tools and methodologies evaluating capabilities of the thus far only loosely defined "general-purpose" AI models, as well as other activities to support implementation of the AI Act.
They will need to hit the ground running – even with the recently reported delay to mid-July of publication of the definitive text, and the knock on delay to compliance deadlines, compliance will be required by early 2025 for systems allocated with 'unacceptable risk', and by next summer for general purpose AI systems.
While there's a fair argument that the AI Act remains the most comprehensive AI legislation in the world, similar processes are moving forward in the US, particularly in some states. Colorado has introduced an AI Act which shares some language with the EU AI Act, referring to high-risk AI systems that make decisions which could be consequential in fields such as healthcare, education, employment or access to social benefits. In addition, the California Privacy Protection Agency (CPPA) released a set of draft regulations last year concerning AI and automated decision-making technology.
Lastly, some of the world's biggest record labels, including Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group, filed lawsuits in the US this week against Suno AI and Uncharted Labs, the developer of Udio AI. The record labels allege that Suno and Udio infringed their copyright by using the labels' recordings to train AI systems that enable users to generate songs from text prompts. We will be back soon with a deeper analysis of this latest addition to the ever-growing list of AI copyright lawsuits in the US.
AI application of the month
With AI fooling judges of traditional art and photograph competitions, it was inevitable that generative AI would start competing openly, with contests such as the 1839 Awards Color Photography Contest introducing an AI category.
What fun then for a prize to be won by a human, Mark Astray. For the fair minded, Miles immediately came clean and was disqualified, his broader point- proving that human-made content has not lost its relevance – being well made, nonetheless.
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