Hello, dear reader! It has been more than a month since my last post. In the meantime, we now have a (seemingly) final text of the AI Act, which is undergoing approval in the formal legislature procedure. We also had dog-bites-man news about the Belgian Presidency urging EU Member States to actually implement digital laws instead of simply approving them and of the “national champion” Mistral AI finishing an agreement with Microsoft (so much for sovereignty). So, the last five weeks were eventful in AI regulation.

However, these weeks also happened to be the period in which I was finishing the first complete draft of my thesis. Currently titled “Delegating the Law of Artificial Intelligence: A Procedural Account of Technology-Neutral Regulation”, my monograph argues that the AI Act and other pieces of EU regulation pursue technology neutrality and, in doing so, erode safeguards to the exercise of regulatory powers and require technical stakeholders to carry out tasks they are neither able nor legitimate to perform. Some ideas behind this argument have appeared elsewhere in my papers and this newsletter. However, the monograph consists mainly of new materials on EU law and the theorization of technology-neutral regulation.

Now that I have finished this first draft, I’ll need to revise it before it can be sent to the examination panel. The members of these panels will send their reports, potentially requiring further revisions before I can actually defend my thesis. So, the defence should only take place in a few months. Nonetheless, it feels good to finally have sent out a vaguely thesis-shaped chunk of text, slightly under 100,000 words. I hope that will be a helpful contribution to debates about AI regulation and technology-neutral regulation more generally.

In the meantime, I’d like to get back to this newsletter. This means, of course, that a lovely otter awaits you at the end of this email. Before that, I will talk about other stuff I’m involved in, followed by reading recommendations and opportunities. Hope you enjoy!

What I’ve been up to

Most of my energies over the last few weeks have been dedicated to finishing the draft thesis. Still, there were some exciting developments for me, professionally speaking.

• My article with Anca Radu, ‘The Brussels Side-Effect: How the AI Act Can Reduce the Global Reach of EU Policy’, is now available as a FirstView article in the German Law Journal. In this paper, we argue that the AI Act might succeed in spreading its product safety formula. However, such a spread does not necessarily mean much for the diffusion of “European values”, especially now that the Convention of Europe’s convention on AI is pining for the fjords.
• My article on regulation by design and the governance of technological futures has now been assigned to an issue of the European Journal of Risk Regulation. An excellent opportunity to read it, or at least update your trusty reference manager with the final volume, issue, and page numbers.
• Rafael Zanatta and I have a forthcoming magazine article at Revista USP about the impact of AI technologies on legal research. The article will be published in Portuguese, but I will talk about its contents here after publication.
• The final output of the project on XAI and taxation in which I’ve been involved for the last few years was accepted for publication at Artificial Intelligence and Law (more on that shortly!)
• I lectured on the AI Act’s approach to prohibited and high-risk AI systems for the Brussels School of Competition’s Executive Master on AI.
• I discussed the AI Act medley paper (the one with Nicolas Petit) at a seminar hosted by Robert Brauneis (George Washington University).

Of course, not everything is a victory. For instance, I botched a few job interviews and failed to even make it to the interview stage in some applications. But I will allow myself to dwell on these victories for now, especially the ones that lead to outputs that might interest the reader.

Reading recommendations

• Xavier Amatriain and others, ‘Transformer Models: An Introduction and Catalog’ (arXiv 25 May 2023).
• Sophie Bennani-Taylor, ‘Infrastructuring AI: The Stabilization of “artificial Intelligence” in and beyond National AI Strategies’ [2024] First Monday.
• Andrea Bonaccorsi and others, ‘Expert Biases in Technology Foresight. Why They Are a Problem and How to Mitigate Them’ (2020) 151 Technological Forecasting and Social Change 119855.
• Sybe de Vries and others, ‘Internal Market 3.0: The Old “New Approach” for Harmonising AI Regulation’ (2023) 8 European Papers - A Journal on Law and Integration 583.
• Claudio Novelli and others, ‘AI Risk Assessment: A Scenario-Based, Proportional Approach to the AI Act’ [2024] Digit Soc’y forthcoming.
• Katharina Pistor and Chenggang Xu, ‘Incomplete Law’ (2003) 35 NYU J Int’l L & Pol 931.
• Albert Sanchez-Graells, ‘Resh(AI)Ping Good Administration: Addressing the Mass Effects of Public Sector Digitalisation’ (2024) 13 Laws 1, 9.
• Renée Sieber and others, ‘Who Are the Publics Engaging in AI?’ [2024] Public Underst Sci 09636625231219853.
• Eugenia Stamboliev and Tim Christiaens, ‘How Empty is Trustworthy AI? A Discourse Analysis of the Ethics Guidelines of Trustworthy AI’ [2024] Critical Policy Studies forthcoming.

See also, on the connection between human rights and technical design measures, Case of Podchasov v Russia No. 33696/19 (European Court of Human Rights, Section III 2024).

Opportunities

Applications for the AI & Law and Law & Logic summer schools at the EUI are open until 4 March. The schools will take place in a hybrid format, so you can join us at the Badia Fiesolana in early July or follow the lectures from anywhere in the world. I am not involved in the organization this year, but I encourage you to apply.

The eLaw Conference is accepting abstracts for presentation. It consists of two events: the eLaw Symposium (20 June) and the AI & Data Protection Conference (21 June). Abstracts (500-700 words) are due by 10 March, and accepted papers might be published at the Computer Law & Security Review.

The Chair in Artificial Intelligence and Democracy at the EUI’s School of Transnational Governance will host a webinar on “EU AI diplomacy: The challenge of regulating AI in the face of geo-economic competition.” on 14 March, featuring Daniel Mügge and Marta Cantero Gamito, with Stefania Milan as moderator. Register here to join.

Northeastern University London seeks assistant/associate professors in digital law and AI ethics. Applications are open until 17 March.

The Cambridge Institute for Technology and Humanity is hiring for a (fixed-term) Assistant Professorship in the Policy or Law of AI, Data and Algorithms. Applications are due by 11 April.

Finally, the otter

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Thanks for reading, and see you around!