Over-enforcement or Under-protection: Can the AI Office Strike a Balance in the Enforcement of General Purpose AI?

  • Panel
  • Maritime
  • Friday 23.05 — 17:20 - 18:40

Organising Institution

ALTEP DP

  • Academic 2
  • Business 2
  • Policy 2
(Over-)Regulation is commonly perceived as stifling innovation, particularly in the competitive race to develop AI. The EU Commission finds itself in a challenging position, balancing the desires of GPAI providers who advocate for lenient enforcement with those who call for stronger measures to protect fundamental rights. How can the EU Commission and its newly established AI Office ensure harmonised enforcement across these various frameworks while effectively protecting individuals' rights and promoting innovation in the AI sector? To address these complex issues, this panel will delve into the role of the AI Office, examining how it interacts with other enforcement mechanisms within the framework of adjacent regulations such as the GDPR, DSA, and DMA. By exploring these dynamics, the discussion aims to shed light on the challenges and opportunities presented by regulatory enforcement in the AI domain.

Questions to be answered

  1. Can centralized enforcement for GPAI reduce legal fragmentation and increase legal certainty at the EU level?
  2. Will simplified compliance for GPAI models result in decreased protection of fundamental rights?
  3. How does the stated goal of promoting innovation by the EU Commission impact future enforcement by the AI Office of GPAI?
  4. How can the Advisory Forum and the Scientific Panel of Independent Experts at the AI Office serve as tools for enhanced regulatory cooperation?

Moderator

Rocco Saverino

ALTEP DP (VUB) - Belgium

Rocco Saverino joined LSTS in July 2022 as a PhD student. He is part of the ALTEP-DP project and focuses his research on the critical role of Data Protection Authorities in enforcing the regulations on data protection and considering their impact in the context of AI (Act).

Speaker

Pawel Hajduk

AI In-house lawyer - Poland

Paweł Hajduk is an EU-qualified lawyer, an external data protection officer, and a PhD researcher and lecturer at the Department of Informatics Law at Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw

Speaker

Cláudio Teixeira

BEUC - Europe

Cláudio Teixeira is a Senior Legal Officer, Deputy Head of Digital Policy at BEUC, the European Consumer Organisation, leading its work on Telecoms and AI. Cláudio holds a Bachelor and Master of Laws from the University of Coimbra in Portugal, and a LL.M. in European Law from College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium. Prior to joining BEUC, he served as a Junior Legal Attaché in the Permanent Representation of Portugal to the European Union in Brussels during the 2021 Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the EU, working on legislative negotiations such as the Digital Markets Act and Public CbCR Directive.

Speaker

Sophie Stalla-Bourdillon

Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) - Belgium

Sophie Stalla-Bourdillon is co-Director of the Brussels Privacy Hub. She is also a visiting professor at the University of Southampton Law School of law, where she held the chair in IT law and Data Governance until 2022. She was Principal Legal Engineer at Immuta Research for six years. Sophie is the author and co-author of several legal articles, chapters and books on data protection and privacy. She has been Editor-in-chief of the Computer Law and Security Review, a leading international journal of technology law, for almost a decade and is now Honorary Editor. She has also served as a legal and data privacy expert for the European Commission, the Council of Europe, the Organisation for the Cooperation and Security in Europe, and for the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Speaker

Sabrina Küspert

AI Office - Europe

Sabrina Küspert is a Policy Officer at the European AI Office of the European Commission. In her role, she focuses on setting up the governance system for general-purpose AI. This is part of implementing the EU AI Act as the world’s first-ever comprehensive legal framework on AI, working towards a global approach to trustworthy AI. During her time as Seconded Policy Expert, she was part of the team negotiating the AI Act on the side of the European Commission. Previously, Sabrina was Fellow and Expert on AI at the European Tech Think Tank Stiftung Neue Verantwortung (now: Interface) in parallel to her stay at the University of Oxford. Her research focused on exploring the role of Germany and Europe for trustworthy AI worldwide, including through regulation, international cooperation and innovation policy. This included publications on the AI value chain and on unreliability, misuse and systemic risks of general-purpose AI. When she was a strategy consultant with the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), she helped establish their global Responsible AI practice.