TechLaw

Artificial Intelligence: What is it and how is it regulated?

A challenge for companies and for regulators

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is probably the technology that will bring about the greatest changes in multiple productive sectors, redefining regulation on multiple fronts, posing unique challenges and opportunities in fields as diverse as intellectual property, financial markets, sustainability and governance (ESG), damages, insurance and criminal law, among others. In order to anticipate the challenges and opportunities posed by AI to business and to stimulate debate on regulatory developments, at Pérez-Llorca we will be producing a series of publications that seek to explore in depth how AI is transforming these areas and what it means for legal practice, business policymaking and society as a whole.

The European Union has been determined to take the lead in digital regulation, including AI, for years. In the first publication, we will explain how this technology works, in order to be able to understand its legal challenges, as well as the basic pillars of the Artificial Intelligence Regulation, the first multidisciplinary regulation that aims to establish basic rules for this technology. The regulatory process, which has had to be substantially revised due to the new generation of AI, to take account of foundation models and generative tools, is proving to be a complex one, which we will follow in future updates.

In the following publication we will cover the implications of AI for intellectual property and image rights. Can an AI-generated work be considered original? Who owns the copyright or industrial property rights in these cases? How should foundation models be protected? These questions not only challenge our current understanding of intellectual property, but also call for new legal and regulatory responses. We will look at how different jurisdictions are addressing these issues and what changes might be needed to adapt the intellectual property framework to the AI era.

In financial markets, AI has been revolutionising the industry for years, from algorithmic trading to risk analysis and fraud detection. These technologies offer enormous benefits in terms of efficiency and data processing capacity, but also carry significant risks, including algorithmic errors and the possibility of market manipulation. We will examine the legal implications of these technologies, including the need for regulation and oversight to ensure fair and transparent markets.

ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) obligations are increasingly at the heart of corporate strategy, and AI has a crucial role to play in this area. From optimising resource use to improving social equity and corporate governance, AI offers highly effective tools for achieving ESG goals, but also raises questions about the ethics of algorithms and liability for automated decisions. We will address how AI is transforming the ESG field and the associated legal and ethical challenges.

The processing of personal data by AI tools, the use of AI for the development of patents, deepfakes, the use of algorithms to assign tasks in the workplace, the damage caused by AI or the capacity of these technologies to affect markets will be some of the issues we will address in this series of publications, infographics and podcasts, which aim to foster a critical dialogue on how we can harmonise technological progress with legal and ethical principles, with an eminently business-oriented approach.