Late on Friday (December 8th), the European Union Commission, Parliament and Council concluded its “trilogue” negotiations for the EU Artificial Intelligence Act. The summary below is based on the information available to date. It will be some time before the definitive text is finalized and released since it will have to go through various committee stages and its legal language finalized in multiple languages.
The following applications of AI will be prohibited:
Recent activity by the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) highlight the continued focus by government regulators on cybersecurity. As these and other regulators take an increasingly assertive enforcement posture, companies should be proactive about structuring their cybersecurity compliance programs to avoid fines, safeguard sensitive data, and protect their reputation.
In July, we wrote about ten notable updates proposed by NYDFS to its cybersecurity regulations. On November 1, the NYDFS announced that it had finalized amendments to 23 NYCRR 500.
On 1 and 2 November 2023, world leaders, politicians, computer scientists and tech executives attended the global AI Safety Summit at Bletchley Park in the UK. Key political attendees included US Vice President Kamala Harris, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, UN Secretary-General António Guterres, and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. Industry leaders also attended, including Elon Musk, Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Amazon Web Services CEO Adam Selipsky, and Microsoft president Brad Smith.
On the first day of the summit, 28 countries and the EU signed the Bletchley Declaration (“Declaration”). The Declaration establishes an internationally shared understanding of the risks and opportunities of AI and the need for sustainable technological development to protect human rights and to foster public trust and confidence in AI systems. In addition to the EU, signatories include the UK, the US and, significantly, China. Nevertheless, there are notable absences, most obviously, Russia.
On 19 September 2023, the UK Parliament passed the Online Safety Bill (“OSB”). The OSB aims to protect individuals from illegal online content and focuses on the protection of children by requiring the removal of content that is legal but harmful to children. For example, social media platforms will be required to act rapidly to prevent children from viewing illegal material, or content that is harmful to them, such as pornography, online bullying, and the promotion of suicide, self-harm or eating disorders. The definition of illegal content covers content that is already unlawful under existing legislation, such as terrorism, hate speech and child sexual exploitation, and introduces new offences relating to more recent online phenomena such as revenge pornography, and ‘upskirting’ and ‘downblousing’ images. This is one of the most significant pieces of UK legislation post-Brexit and shows a distinctly UK approach to online harms, which businesses operating globally will need to comply with. This will need to be reviewed in parallel with the EU Digital Services Act, which has similar goals in making Europe a safe online environment.
A date for Royal Assent (when the OSB will become law) is expected shortly. The OSB’s wide scope makes it likely to result in implementation problems and potential challenges resulting from the impact the OSB is likely to have on freedom of expression and personal privacy. The underlying principles of the OSB are very different to those familiar with US laws and the constitutional protections for free speech. The risks of non-compliance will be significant, with extremely high potential fines of up to 10% of a company’s global revenue.
Continue reading “The UK’s Online Safety Bill – Implications for US and International Businesses”
On July 26, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) finalized a much anticipated rule addressing cybersecurity risk management, strategy, governance, and incident disclosure. Public companies registered with the SEC will soon be required to report material cybersecurity incidents within four business days of determining the incident to be material and to make periodic disclosures regarding cybersecurity risk management, strategy, and governance.
Recent enforcement actions and announcements show that state and federal regulators are continuing to focus intensely on cybersecurity and data protection. Notably, the New York Department of Financial Services (“NYDFS”) recently issued the latest proposed amendments to its Cybersecurity Regulations. NYDFS also recently announced a $4.25 million cybersecurity consent order with OneMain Financial Group, LLC (“OneMain”). In addition, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) recently announced a settlement with genetic testing company 1Health.io (“1Health”).
The NYDFS recently announced updated proposed amendments to its industry leading cybersecurity regulations. These latest amendments follow public comments on earlier proposed amendments circulated in November 2022. If adopted, companies regulated by NYDFS would face several new requirements, including the following:
