The EU Artificial Intelligence Act (the AI Act) and the Regulation (EU) 2023/1230 on machinery (the Machinery Regulation) and repealing Directive 2006/42/EC (the Machinery Directive) are closely intertwined. In this Insight article, Rosa Barcelo, Partner at McDermott Will & Emery, analyzes the purposes, interplay, and scope of the AI Act, the Machinery Directive, and its successor, the Machinery Regulation.

The EU Artificial Intelligence Act (the AI Act) is set to become a landmark regulation governing artificial intelligence (AI). It introduces stringent requirements and responsibilities for various actors in the AI value chain. Two key actors in that value chain are AI providers and deployers.

Determining whether an entity is a provider or deployer is crucial, as the roles carry distinct obligations under the AI Act. As with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and its distinction between controller and processor, the classification of provider or deployer will always require an assessment of the facts, rather than simply being allocated through contractual arrangements.

In practice, as businesses increasingly seek AI solutions trained on their proprietary data and materials to achieve outputs that are more tailored to their needs, the line between a provider and deployer may become blurred. It may even be possible for an entity to be both provider and deployer for the same AI system, depending on how it is implemented.

In part one of this Insight series, Katie Hewson and Eva Lu, from Stephenson Harwood LLP, examine the definitions of providers and deployers under the AI Act and allocating such roles. There are several other operators in the AI value chain - product manufacturer, importer, distributor, and authorized representative - that will not be covered in this article.

The construction of a fair, thriving, and progressive data ecosystem in the European Union (EU) is a major goal of the European Commission (EC). Following the entry into force of the GDPR in 2018, the backbone of the EU's set of rules on processing personal data, the EC has outlined subsequent regulatory initiatives to address the challenges and unleash the opportunities presented by the data economy in the EU. The success of the EU's Digital Decade initiative hinges on various factors, such as the responsiveness of organizations, the availability of clear guidance, and the establishment of legal certainty and coherence among regulators. One thing is clear: the EU is exploring new horizons in digital rulemaking.

In this Insight article, Heidi Waem, Muhammed Demircan, and Simon Verschaeve, from DLA Piper UK LLP, outline the main points of interplay of the GDPR, Chapter II of the Data Act, and the DSA.

In the past few years, the digital market has witnessed an outpour of artificial intelligence (AI) systems, with the AI market expected to reach a valuation of nearly $2 trillion by 2030.  However, the surge in the use of AI has led to the birth of several pertinent issues ranging from concerns about data privacy and intellectual property rights infringements to issues around transparency and ethical concerns, among others. In the first part of this series on navigating the AI frontier, Raghav Muthanna, Avimukt Dar, and Himangini Mishra, from INDUSLAW, aim to analyze and assess the regulatory position around AI in three key jurisdictions, namely the EU, USA, and India. Part two of this series will evaluate the diverse approaches of these jurisdictions and the learnings that India can adopt from the EU and the USA while framing its own set of AI regulations, as well as what lies ahead for India in the AI regulatory space.