President Biden met with other G-7 leaders over the weekend, and two threads of announcements came from it.
First, continuing our AI thread, there was a call for international standards for rapid advancements in artificial intelligence. The statement acknowledged that despite the rapid growth of AI and immersive technologies such as metaverses, international rules governing their use and compliance have “not necessarily kept pace.” New technologies should be governed in line with democratic values, they wrote — including fairness, accountability, transparency, protection from online abuse, and respect for privacy and human rights.
Second, there was a commitment to the cybersecurity of critical systems and working to stem Chinese influence in the technology standards setting. The G-7 leaders launched the Coordination Platform on Economic Coercion, which in part aims to stem the tide of Chinese theft of critical technologies. Further, following concerns about enhanced Chinese influence around setting global standards for emerging technologies, G-7 leaders vowed to “collectively support the development of open, voluntary, and consensus-based standards that will shape the next generation of technology.”
Why do we care?
Reuters offered some insights into the state of play – there’s action in the EU, but don’t sleep on the existing laws already in place. Trade regulation, data privacy laws, and general safety laws all still apply. The end state will be interpretations in front of judges. The current state is making sure existing risk is covered.
On cyber, it’s encouraging to have leaders work to align the frameworks. The less complexity of differing legal implications, the easier the work for providers is.