RegTech4AI @ Maastricht Law&Tech Lab

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The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a cornerstone of the regulation of AI in the EU. It seeks to facilitate the flow of data across the EU while protecting citizens’ fundamental rights – including data protection and privacy. Even though the GDPR is now more than 7 years old, there remain significant gaps between the law and practice. For example, past research by the project lead showed that less than 10% of mobile apps fulfil the minimum legal requirements regarding consent – one of the core principles of GDPR.

As the EU is introducing the AI Act (i.e. its first law aimed directly at AI), it is likely that again – like with GDPR – enforcement will be lagging and that businesses will be overwhelmed by the legal obligations. In response, RegTech4AI will research regulatory technologies (RegTech) to assist enforcement agencies and businesses with AI regulation, and thereby bolster trust in AI systems among citizens.

The aim of this project is not to develop new AI frameworks or laws (as this has been studied much before). Instead, we focus on the challenge of implementation: making AI-relevant laws like GDPR and the AI Act work in practice. This topic has received very limited attention as it requires a deep understanding of both CS and law – which is rare.

To be prepared to respond to new AI challenges in the years ahead, we will also actively build bridges across CS and law, including by organising a set of workshops and conferences on the topic.

RegTech4AI will be carried out as part of the Law&Tech Lab at Maastricht University, located in the Netherlands and close to Brussels. Over the last 5 years, the Lab grew continuously and now hosts 16 faculty members, with experts in AI law, NLP, and legal data science.

team

The project team consists of a range of experienced researchers in the domain of applying technical methods to the law (particular in machine learning and data science), one postdoc with interdisciplinary research expertise, and up to five PhD students.

Konrad Kollnig
Project Lead, Assistant Professor CS/Law

Gijs van Dijck
Professor of Private Law

Johanna T. Gunawan
Assistant Professor in CS/HCI/Law

Jerry Spanakis
Assistant Professor in NLP and Law

Qian Li
Postdoctoral Researcher

Kamil Szostak
PhD Student

Bram Rijsbosch
PhD Student

Lucas Giovanni Uberti-Bona Marin
PhD Student

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