SOLAIR 2023: Future-Proof Regulation of Artificial Intelligence

On 12 – 13 December 2023, the Institute of State and Law of the Czech Academy of Sciences organized the sixth international SOLAIR Conference 2023 (Society, Law, Artificial Intelligence and Robotics). The purpose of the conference in 2023 was to discuss how to regulate artificial intelligence in a future-proof manner. The conference was organized jointly by the Institute of State and Law of the CAS, the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic, United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL), UNIDROIT, the Czech Academy of Sciences, Microsoft, and the Czech Company Lawyers Association. The event was organized under the auspices of the President of the Czech Republic Petr Pavel, the Minister of Industry and Trade Josef Síkela, and the President of the Czech Academy of Sciences Eva Zažímalová.

Speakers at the conference comprised Anna Joubin-Bret (UNCITRAL), Kristian Bartholin (Committee on AI, Council of Europe), Daniel Všetečka (Ministry of Industry and Trade), Jeremy Rollison (Microsoft), Marek Havrda (Ministry of European Affairs), Lisa Spink ( U.S. Embassy in Prague), Hamza Hameed (Access Partnership, Singapore), Yosi Aviram (Israel National Cyber Directorate), Jay Latta, Andre Guskow Cardoso (Digital Law and Data Protection Commission of OAB/PR), Regina Hučková (Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice), Hannes Cools (University of Amsterdam) and Ondřej Kramoliš (GenDigital). Discussions were led by Weston Stacey (American Chamber of Commerce), Tomáš Ščerba (DLA Piper), Vladimír Krasula (JetBrains), Eva Fialová (Institute of State and Law of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic), Rudolf Leška (University of Finance and Administration), Monika Hanych and Vladan Rámiš (Association for the Protection of Personal Data).

The contributions and discussions focused not only on existing approaches and tools, but also on general regulatory principles and their real-world applications, on progressive strategies for managing and regulating artificial intelligence, and on the specific needs of individual sectors. The conference also included a specialized workshop called Solving the Complexity of AI Regulation that focused on the possibilities of creating a regulatory favorable environment to support research, development and business.

The conference provided a comprehensive view of the development of artificial intelligence regulation both at the international level (UNCITRAL, Council of Europe and UNIDROIT) and in individual regions (EU, USA, Israel and South Asia). More than 100 participants registered for the conference (participation on-site and online). The participants mainly included representatives of Czech and foreign universities, Czech and international law firms, Czech ministries and other public bodies, and Czech and international companies.

AI Act: Political Agreement Reached

On 9 December 2023, the European Parliament and the Council reached a political agreement on the AI Act proposed in April 2021 and significantly updated on 14 June 2023 in reaction to increasing use of generative AI and foundational models.

The Press release of the European Commission is available HERE.

The Press release of the European Parliament is available HERE.