AI Innovations – How Will Upcoming AI Regulation Affect Trade Secrets And Patents?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is big news at the moment. It's difficult to avoid talk of AI chatbots, AI deepfakes, and even AI's existential threat to humanity. It's no surprise then that governments worldwide are starting to tackle the social, ethical, and economic questions that AI raises.

The European Union (EU) is working on one of the world's first AI legal frameworks that aims to bolster regulations for the development and the use of AI. In April 2021, the European Commission put forward the first draft of the AI Act, which says that AI systems are to be analysed and classified according to the risk that they ultimately pose to end-users. Throughout an extensive discussion and revision process over the last two years, this risk-based classification system has remained at the heart of the proposed regulation, and the final form of the law is expected to be agreed by the end of this year.