European Legal Lab in IP, Technology, Information and Communication

 
THE SITUATION IN ROMANIA

Panel workshop on the annulation of the presidential election by the Supreme Court due to a disinformation operation on social media.

Online Workshop

18^th December 2024   |  12am - 1pm CET

Join us for an urgent panel workshop as we discuss the recent developments in Romania, where the Supreme Court has annulled the first round of the presidential election. This unprecedented action comes in response to warnings from security services about alleged Russian influence in the political campaign of ultranationalist candidate Călin Georgescu, reportedly facilitated through a disinformation operation on the social network TikTok.

To unpack these critical events, DRAILS is pleased to present a panel featuring three esteemed members:

• Dr. Diana Mocanu (University of Helsinki) : expert in legal issues surrounding AI and a Romanian citizen
• Jean De Meyere (KU Leuven/UCLouvain): pursuing a PhD on online platform governance and disinformation
• Clément Maertens (UCLouvain) : researcher on political disinformation through the lens of media and AI

During the workshop, our panelists will provide a factual overview of the situation and explore how legislation, including the latest European instruments such as the Digital Services Act (DSA), is poised to respond.

As always, we encourage audience participation, ensuring an engaging and insightful dialogue with our speakers!

> read more and register online to receive the connection link

Data, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Law & Society (DRAILS) is a CPDR - CRIDES research project

HUMAN-CENTRED TRANSFORMATION OF EU DIGITAL POLICY

Werner Stengg

Online Workshop

19^th November 2024   |  12 am- 1 pm CET

This presentation follows the EU's journey into the digital age, explaining how it uses legislation and policy to tackle challenges such as the abuse of market power by Big Tech companies and the spread of hate speech and disinformation.

Werner Stengg draws on his extensive experience in shaping digital policy to expertly analyse the EU’s ambitious legislative and innovation programme, which focuses on human rights and prioritises trustworthy, transparent, and accountable usage of digital technologies. Alongside this examination of legislation and policy, Stengg also outlines the EU’s major investment agenda into the digital infrastructures required to become a global player in our data-driven and AI-powered economy. Ultimately, he highlights that innovations in the digital sphere are essential not only for the global competitiveness of European companies, but also for Europe to safeguard its resilience, autonomy, and technological sovereignty at a time of mounting geopolitical tensions.

> read more and register online to receive the connection link

Data, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Law & Society (DRAILS) is a CPDR - CRIDES research project

CREATION AND COMPETITION IN THE METAVERSE
 

Friso Bostoen

Online Workshop

7th November 2024   |  12 am- 1 pm CET

The metaverse is a futuristic concept. It was first articulated in science fiction but has been pursued by corporations ever since. Due to technical limitations, the metaverse still lies in the future. Nevertheless, it is worthy of reflection today, also by legal scholars. The reason is that two essential aspects of the metaverse, namely interconnection between virtual worlds and a thriving creator economy, may never be achieved without legal intervention. In other words, whether the metaverse ever comes into existence depends not only on developers but also—-even if more modestly—on lawyers. This paper shows how. It starts by describing the metaverse, from its literary history to contemporary manifestations and then tackles two key issues, interoperability and distribution, from a competition law and policy perspective.

> read more and register online to receive the connection link

Data, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Law & Society (DRAILS) is a CPDR - CRIDES research project

VIRTUAL WORLDS, REAL RISKS:
EXPLORING USER SAFETY IN THE METAVERSE UNDER THE DIGITAL SERVICES ACT

Jean De Meyere and Noémie Krack

Online Workshop

15th October 2024   |  12 am - 1 pm CET

What legal challenges do specific metaverse platforms present in terms of user safety, and how does the Digital Services Act (DSA) address these challenges? The emergence of virtual realities creates new risk for the safety of users of those new type of environments. While EU Regulation is aiming to improve online safety, how is this relevant to the context of extendand and virtual reality?

In this presentation, Jean De Meyere and Noémie Krack discuss how the DSA applies to metaverse platforms and what safeguards it offers to its user when it come to safety in the virtual environment.

> read more and register online to receive the connection link

Data, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Law & Society (DRAILS) is a CPDR - CRIDES research project

The role of citizens and civil society in the international governance of AI

Seminar

10 October June 2024

Sciences Po, 1, place St Thomas d'Aquin, room N207, Pavillon de l'innovation, Paris

> programme

INSPIRATION AND IP:  INSPIRATION IN IP
Academic and pedagogical research as a support to teaching

EIPTN (European Intellectual Property Teachers’ Network)
16th Worldwide Annual Conference

4 - 5 October 2024
UCLouvain Saint-Louis Bruxelles

> Programme

> Registration*

*Admission is free but places are limited. Thank you to register online before September 25.

VENUE | UCLouvain Saint-Louis Bruxelles | Room P02 | 43 Bd. du Jardin Botanique | 1000 Brussels (Belgium)

CONTACT | ariane.robyn@uclouvain.be 

ORGANISATION | European Intellectual Property Teachers’ Network (EIPTN)

HOSTING TEAM | Alain Strowel, together with Vincent Cassiers, Luc Desaunettes, François Wéry, IP group of CRIDES

HOSTING UNIVERSITY | UCLouvain Saint-Louis Bruxelles

WITH THE SUPPORT OF

 
AI  LIABILITY  IN  THE  EU

Dr. Béatrice Schütte

Online Workshop

5^th December 2024   |  12am - 1pm CET

In September 2022, the EU Commission published a proposal for an AI Liability Directive.

Since then, not much has happened as discussions had been suspended to await the adoption of the AI Act. In the meantime, discussions are ongoing as to whether the scope of the Directive should be extended to general-purpose AI. Some EU Member States are allegedly also striving to abandon the project of harmonising liability for damage caused by AI completely.

This presentation will give an overview of the proposal and the current state of the discussions.

> read more and register online to receive the connection link

Data, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Law & Society (DRAILS) is a CPDR - CRIDES research project

LES CONTRATS DU NUMÉRIQUE – LOGICIELS, INTELLIGENCE ARTIFICIELLE ET INTERNET DES OBJETS (2/09/2024)

► Inscriptions payantes via ce lien

► Inscriptions gratuites via ce lien (Membres de l'UCLouvain/Chercheurs/Doctorants/Etudiants)

Date et horaire | 2/09/2024 de 9h30 à 16h

Adresse | UCLouvain - Auditoire MORE 63  - Faculté de droit - Place Montesquieu 2 à 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve.

Accès | Mobilité douce | en train : Gare de Louvain-la-Neuve – Université | en bus : Tec ou Conforto

En voiture  Plan des parkings
« parkings malins », gratuits, en périphérie du site de LLN (10 minutes à pied)
parkings payants Grand Place ou Grand Rue

Droits d’inscription | 100 EUR | Gratuit pour les chercheurs/doctorants, les étudiants et les membres de l'UCLouvain

► Inscriptions payantes via ce lien

► Inscriptions gratuites via ce lien (Membres de l'UCLouvain/Chercheurs/Doctorants/Etudiants)

Formation permanente |  Ordre des barreaux francophones et germanophone (OBFG): 5 points | Institut des Juristes d’Entreprise (IJE)

Contact | catherine.vanderlinden@uclouvain.be

The Multiple Actors of International AI Governance

Seminar

27 June 2024

UCLouvain, Boulevard du Jardin Botanique 43, 1000 Brussels

The seminar will begin with an overview of some initiatives taken by institutional actors and non-traditional structures, with a critical analysis of the existing framework.
During this day, we want to examine the organizations that could implement international AI governance, examining their procedures, opportunities and limitations, but also the role of non-conventional actors influencing AI regulation, such as standardization bodies, private and regional actors, at national and European levels.

> provisionnal programme

DUAL-USE TECHNOLOGIES:

SUPPORTING INNOVATION AND SECURITY, FACILITATING THE FUNDING IN EUROPE AND MITIGATING GLOBAL RISKS

Workshop 2 May 2024 | h. 13.15-16.15
Louvain-la-Neuve and online

The geopolitical situation requires new policy drivers for developing security-enhancing technologies (and a real industrial policy) in Europe. At the same time, nonproliferation regimes based on export controls must be strengthened. Our workshop aims at presenting and discussing some of the policy and legal challenges raised by dual-use technologies, i.e. those that can be used for both civil and military purposes, for ex. computers and artificial intelligence, in particular when developed by start-ups supported by research organisations.
Objectives of the workshop. We will not review in details the control regimes applicable to dual-use technologies¹ . We will rather discuss the evolving landscape for supporting and funding dual-use technologies, in particular AI, and discuss some prominent policy issues for mitigating the risks.

►Registration is free but mandatory. You can register online

►Address: UCLouvain - Room Leclercq 62 - Place Montesquieu 1 - 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve Map here

►and Online (Teams) Remote participants will receive the link by e mail a few days before the Conference.

Promoting and funding innovation in dual-use technologies. While the (traditional) European defence sector clearly benefits from new incentives at national level, innovative dual use technologies can be promoted through support and funding at supranational and EU level. The NATO has for ex. set-up DIANA² , a new accelerator for dual use technologies. Today, start-ups as well as research organisations are more often confronted with the issues raised by dual-use technologies and export control regimes (this led to the creation of the European Export Control Association for Research Organisations³ ). At the same time, potential funding institutions, such as the EU and the European Investment Bank, have to go beyond the constraints imposed by the Treaties⁴ , drafted when civil peace and economic well-being were the focus of European integration.

Reducing the risks of AI-based weapons/technologies. While it is crucial to support innovation in technologies that could benefit the general public, the focus on dual-use technologies might reinforce a new military industrial complex that we had hoped to be something of the past (the Russian industrial machine shows however the opposite⁵ ). Since at least World War Two, we know that technologies (including the radar, jet power, and atomic bomb) are essential in the battlefields⁶ . But the U.S. Rand project and DARPA⁷  aiming to connect military planning and scientific research led to many civil tech we benefit today, such as the Internet, touch screens, GPS, etc. In Ukraine, drones seem to play a decisive role. This raises the risks of further development of lethal autonomous weapons systems (LAWS⁸)  relying on AI technology. Autonomy by AI could be a powerful part of future deterrence. But as LAWS are rather cheap and do not cost human life (on those using them), the risks of proliferation⁹  are high. Those new risks including for fundamental rights must be discussed and mitigated.
 

¹For ex. Regulation 2021/821 setting up a Union regime for the control of exports, brokering, technical assistance, transit and transfer of dual-use items as amended by the Commission Delegated Regulation 2023/66.

²DIANA is “the Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic, an organisation established by NATO to find and accelerate dual-use innovation capacity across the Alliance” “Among other technology areas, DIANA will focus on big data, artificial intelligence (AI), autonomy, quantum, biotechnologies and human enhancement, energy and propulsion, novel materials and advanced manufacturing and aerospace – specifically where they are dual-use” (see. www.diana.nato.int).

³See www.eecaro.eu Its funding members include some Belgian research entities such as IMEC, KULeuven, Liège Université as well as the German Fraunhofer and Dutch TNO. See also the UK based Higher Education Export Controls Association (HEECA).

⁴The Treaties prohibit the bloc to use its budget to fund military operations, but off-budget funding mechanisms such as the European Peace Facility are allowed, on top of the budget for the European Defence Fund to promote cutting-edge defence technologies.

⁵In the U.S., start-ups, such as Anduril (funded by Peter Thiel, the founder of PayPal) are taking a growing share in the US defence budget. OpenAI (the maker of ChatGPT) has changed its terms of service to allow military uses of its AI tools (FT, 30-31 March 2024).

⁶However, advanced technologies such as the first (Texas Instruments-made) microprocessors equipping the American bombs in Vietnam did not suffice to stop the long conflict. But the Pentagon investments had a profound effect on the development of the U.S. microchips industry (see Chris Miller, Chip War. The fight for the world’s most critical technology, Scribner, 2022).

⁷Rand is a contraction of “Research and development” while DARPA is the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency.

⁸Laws are defined as “weapon system[s] that, once activated, can select and engage targets without. further intervention by a human operator.” This autonomy is known as “human out of the loop” (see Office for Disarmament Affairs of the United Nations).

⁹The anti-proliferation regimes include for instance the export control arrangements for nuclear-related exports or the Wassenaar Arrangement (www.wassenaar.org) which has an extensive set of control lists and seeks to contribute to regional and international security by promoting transparency in transfers of conventional arms and dual-use technologies, in particular to avoid their acquisition by terrorists.