Navigating AI legislation: Lost in the jungle of new EU laws?

Béatrice Schütte and Mika Viljanen.

On 1 October 2024, the FCAI Ethics Advisory Board organized a meeting for FCAI researchers on the regulation of AI and data at the EU level. The speakers, Professor Mika Viljanen from the University of Turku and Dr. Béatrice Schütte, postdoctoral researcher from the University of Lapland, gave an overview of the most important EU regulatory frameworks in the area.

The frameworks make up a complex landscape for AI-related activities. The AI Act directly affects AI development and use. It introduces multiple sets of obligations to AI developers and deployers, who, however, must also comply with multiple other regulations, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the Dat Act or the Digital Services Act (DSA) and the Digital Markets Act (DMA). While the GDPR sets out rules for use of personal data, the Data Act provides for the sharing and re-use of device data from the Internet of Things (IoT). The DSA obliges platform and search engine providers to address, for example, illegal content on their sites, while the DMA tries to ensure a fair and even playing field for businesses active on the largest online platforms. 

A particular challenge is and will be the functioning of the legal framework on technology regulation in combination with both relevant regulations from the pre-digital era and future pieces of legislation.