EU: AI Act Summit 2024
Following our input to discussions on the AI Act, including the dialogue with Dragos Tudorache (co-rapporteur of the EU AI Act), we joined the EU AI Act Summit 2024 to explore how the AI Act affects SMEs, the current scientific and technology landscape, and cyber-physical and embodied AI systems. The Summit aims to support providers and corporate users of AI with practical guidance on preparing for the enforcement of the Act. It gathered policymakers, regulators, and industry leaders across law, finance, healthcare, and technology.
Related
Contributions to AI Act discussions through the lens of public systems (OECD)
OECD G7 Hiroshima Framework and reporting mechanism (OECD)
General-Purpose AI Code of Practice (Working Groups 2 and 3)
EU: AI Act Summit
The EU AI Act is the first comprehensive model for AI regulation introduced internationally, alongside China's AI regulation, which pursues a different objective. It takes a prescriptive, rules-based approach covering both providers and users of AI technologies, and is extra-territorial in its reach, though how this will be enforced remains unclear. Recognizing how quickly AI technology develops, those drafting the legislation built in a degree of flexibility, though this remains constrained by its rules-based structure.
Held on 6 February 2024 in London and organized by City & Financial Global with support from RUSI, the Summit convened speakers including Kai Zenner, Digital Policy Advisor for MEP Axel Voss; Minesh Tanna, Global AI Lead at Simmons & Simmons and Chair of the SCL AI Group; and Vivienne Artz OBE, Data Strategy & Privacy Policy Advisor at the Centre for Information Policy Leadership, alongside representatives from Commerzbank, GE HealthCare, Lloyds Banking Group, AstraZeneca, BT Group, IBM, and the Alan Turing Institute. The day's sessions addressed the Act's regulatory outlook compared to the UK and US, its interplay with GDPR, foundation and general-purpose AI models, emerging standards, and the skills gap hindering AI adoption. Our keynote addressed how the Act's requirements intersect with SME readiness, innovation capacity, and the deployment of assistive technologies.
References
¹ City & Financial Global. "The EU AI Act Summit 2024." Agenda. London. February 6, 2024.
² Royal United Services Institute (RUSI). "The EU AI Act Summit 2024." Event Listing. 2024.