To delve deeper into the concepts covered in REMIT’s first conference, to provide a comprehensive overview of each session’s topics, and to offer participants a glimpse of what awaits them (or why you should register if you haven’t already!), we’ll be rolling out a Session Series in the weeks leading up to the event.
Moving on to Parallel Session 5!
| May 17, 9.45-11.30 | Session 5 Regulatory sandboxes with a focus on AI Moderator: Triantafyllos Kouloufakos, University of Leuven, Belgium Speakers: Filippo Bagni, PhD Candidate in Law &Technology, Scuola IMT Alti Studi Lucca, Italy; Nils Brinker, Senior Cybersecurity Expert at Intcube; Katerina Yordanova, IMEC KU Leuven, Belgium; Dr. Taina Junquilho, University of Brasília, Brazil; Kai Zenner, European Parliament |
Session 5 is hosted and organised by REMIT partners from the University of Leuven – the hosts of the conference!
This panel explores the ways in which the main geopolitical actors approach the governance of civilian and military applications in key technology sectors, both separately and in relation to one another. It also explores the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) as a conceptual framework for analysing the unfolding contests over and cooperation on the global governance of strategic technologies.
Session moderator Triantafyllos Kouloufakos (KUL) was kind enough to answer some questions on what he has in mind for it.
What is the importance of holding conversations on regulatory sandboxes in today’s world?
Regulatory sandboxes become more and more relevant in today’s world. According to a World Bank study more than 50 countries have introduced regulatory sandboxes, albeit for the fintech domain. This tendency has expanded to other technology domains and has found its way to AI as well.
There are significant benefits when discussing regulatory sandboxes. Regulators have adequate space to develop supervision, rulemaking, and enforcement policies, and generally adopting a more consensual approach. Innovators can develop their products and services in a way that they understand more the expectations of the supervisors’ regulators, in order to mitigate any risks which can also lead to reduce the time-to market cycle for new products. Finally, consumers benefit from the introduction of new and potentially safer products.
On the other hand, this process may be misused and lead to regulators lowering safety standards in order to attract innovators and in the same spirit prioritizing innovation over adequate safeguards to protect consumers. Moreover, if the regulators make misinformed choices, they may hamper genuine innovation.
For all these reasons, it is important to hold discussions on regulatory sandboxes as with the AI occupying a bigger and bigger part of our lives, both the risks and the benefits must be discussed and analysed in detail.
What can participants expect from attending this session?
Participants will find in this session a well-rounded discussion about regulatory sandboxes on AI, however focusing a bit more on the legal side. Regulatory sandboxes are important and topical; however someone must regulate the regulators. With the recent success of the EU on that front, and the very welcome and prompt acceptance of the AI act, it is important to discuss how this new field would be benefited or endangered, by the introduction of regulatory sandboxes.
What aspect are you most looking forward to being explored in the session, considering the speakers and their specialties?
The session is very promising to be a very good and thorough analysis about the different aspects of regulatory sandboxes. There is a small focus on the legal side, but due to the nature of all the speakers work and studies, they all possess a holistic idea about regulatory sandboxes and AI. I believe that this meeting of minds, along with the interaction with the audience is what I am, expecting more, as it will be very interesting to see how these different expertise meet and what kind of result they produce altogether.
Which other session are you most looking forward to attending in the 1st REMIT conference?
I believe that Session 4: Critical and Emerging Technologies between Risk Assessments and Competition Strategies is going to be quite interesting. The speakers are true specialists on their topic, and the issue is highly important on today’s society and very close to my personal research interests on cybersecurity and risks online.
Session Speakers
Kouloufakos Triantafyllos is a Doctoral Researcher at the Centre for IP & IT Law of KU Leuven. He holds an LLM in Public International Law from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (Greece) (summa cum laude) and an LLM in Public International Law from the University of Groningen (the Netherlands) (cum laude) for which he was also awarded the University of Groningen Talent Grant: Partial Scholarship Law 2020–2021. He has worked as a lawyer in Greece for 3 years. He was a part of the inaugural cohort of the European Cybersecurity Fellowship (2022 2023) of the European Cyber Conflict Research Initiative. He is mainly interested in issues of cyberspace accountability, the protection of critical infrastructures from malicious cyber operations and the use of norms and standards to regulate cyberspace. His PhD Project concerns the potential application of the no-harm principle in cyberspace in order to achieve a more effective harm redress from malicious cyber operations.
Filippo Bagni is a lawyer specialising in digital regulation and a researcher in Law & Technology at the University of Florence. He is currently a legal officer at the European Commission, where he works on AI and digital services. He is pursuing a PhD in Cybersecurity at the IMT School for Advanced Studies in Lucca. He is the author of numerous academic publications on various topics, including banking law and digital regulation.
Nils Brinker is a senior cybersecurity expert at intcube, where he works on the regulation and compliance of digital technology, especially risk management. He was formerly a Researcher at the Digital Society Institute of the ESMT Berlin, where he developed a systematic approach to IT Security Law.
Katerina Yordanova is a lawyer specializing in ICT & IP Law, focusing on AI regulation, regulatory sandboxes, data protection, and bias mitigation. She conducts research at the KUL Centre for IT & IP Law on technology regulation, with a focus on AI and regulatory sandboxes, which is also the topic of her ongoing PhD, done in collaboration with imec. Katerina holds degrees from the University of Sofia, KU Leuven, and the University of Cambridge, with experience in both private and public sectors, including work with international law offices and the United Nations.
Dr. Taina Junquilho has a PhD in Law with an emphasis on Artificial Intelligence from the University of Brasília. Lawyer and Researcher. Fellowship researcher at Ghent University.
Kai Zenner was previously a postdoctoral fellow and lecturer at Stanford University CISAC and a College Lecturer at Keble College, University of Oxford. He has also held research and fellowship positions at New America, Columbia University SIPA, Sciences Po CERI, and NATO CCD COE. Before his academic career, Max worked in finance in London and Amsterdam.