CPDP is a non-profit platform originally founded in 2007 by research groups from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, the Université de Namur and Tilburg University. The platform was joined in the following years by the Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique and the Fraunhofer Institut für System und Innovationsforschung and has now grown into a platform carried by 20 academic centers of excellence from the EU, the US and beyond. As a world-leading multidisciplinary conference CPDP offers the cutting edge in legal, regulatory, academic and technological development in privacy and data protection. Within an atmosphere of independence and mutual respect, CPDP gathers academics, lawyers, practitioners, policy-makers, industry and civil society from all over the world in Brussels, offering them an arena to exchange ideas and discuss the latest emerging issues and trends. This unique multidisciplinary formula has served to make CPDP one of the leading data protection and privacy conferences in Europe and around the world.

CPDP2024 -TO GOVERN OR TO BE GOVERNED, THAT IS THE QUESTION
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Ever more systems of artificial intelligence – with apparent inescapability – are being established in ever more parts of our lives, cultures, and societies. They bring about justified concerns as well as governance efforts. In the EU, the upcoming AI Act stands out in this regard, aiming to introduce a common framework to govern artificial intelligence. As a first step, the increasing use of AI raises governance questions: for example, who should govern AI design and applications, or what may be governed by AI?

CPDP2024 puts accelerating complexity of AI at the centre stage, with the underlying question: Is AI governable?

The conference gathers a wealth of expertise in the fields of data protection and privacy, as well as politics and technology. Can experiences and existing work in the fields of data protection and privacy help us to understand and facilitate the governance of AI? To avoid making similar mistakes, how can we learn from known challenges and continuing struggles in implementing the GDPR? How can co-operation between different supervisory or regulatory authorities and different technological, research and civic domains be established for the governance of AI in all its diverse facets? How does the meaning, shape and practice of governance change when it faces Artificial Intelligence/Complexity? Who is excluded or sidelined by the complexity of Artificial Intelligence and its governance, or lack thereof?

During the conference, we approach these questions critically from different perspectives and deliberate on what the future may bring for cohabitation with incredible intelligences in our digital societies. Such reflections require multi-disciplinary conversations on societal, legal, ethical, and technical dynamics and norms that underpin the development of new socio-technical systems and the rules that govern their use.