A bipartisian bill, the Leadership in Critical and Emerging Technologies Act (“Leadership in CET Act”), was recently introduced to Congress
Georgia Court Dismisses Defamation Lawsuit Against OpenAI Over ChatGPT Output
Last week a Georgia state court granted summary judgment in favor of OpenAI, ending a closely watched defamation lawsuit over false information—sometimes called “hallucinations”—generated by its generative AI product, ChatGPT. The plaintiff, Mark Walters, is a nationally syndicated radio host and prominent gun rights advocate who sued OpenAI after ChatGPT produced output incorrectly stating that he had been accused of embezzlement in a lawsuit filed by the Second Amendment Foundation (“SAF”). Walters is not, and never was, a party to that case.
Effective Board Oversight as AI Evolves
The following is part of our annual publication Selected Issues for Boards of Directors in 2025. Explore all topics or download the PDF.
Deployment of generative AI expanded rapidly across many industries in 2024, leading to broadly increased productivity, return on investment and other benefits. At the same time, AI was also a focus for lawmakers, regulators and courts. There are currently 27 active generative AI litigation cases in the U.S., nearly all of which involve copyright claims. Numerous state legislatures have mulled AI regulation, and Colorado became the first and only state thus far to pass a law creating a broad set of obligations for certain developers and deployers of AI.
EU Evaluates Standalone AI Liability Directive
For some time, the EU has been contemplating the introduction of a new Directive to make it easier for consumers to bring claims for a range of alleged harms caused by AI systems, commonly referred to as the AI Liability Directive (the “AILD”).
French data protection authority launches new public consultation on the development of AI systems
On 2 July, the French data protection supervisory authority – Commission Nationale de l’Informatique et des Libertés (CNIL) – launched a new public consultation on the development of AI systems. The public consultation is on (i) a new series of how-to sheets aimed at providing clarifications and recommendations with respect to seven issues related to the development of AI and data protection and (ii) a questionnaire on applying the GDPR to AI models trained with personal data. Below we set out a summary of the main takeaways.
UPSTO Issues “Significant” Guidance on Patentability of AI-Assisted Inventions, but unlike USCO, Does Not Require Disclosure of AI Involvement
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) issued guidance on February 13, 2024 (the “Guidance”) regarding the patentability of inventions created or developed with the assistance of artificial intelligence (“AI”), a novel issue on which the USPTO has been seeking input from various public and private stakeholders over the past few years. President Biden mandated the issuance of such Guidance in his executive order on AI (see our prior alert here)[1] in October 2023. The Guidance aims to clarify how patent applications involving AI-assisted inventions will be examined by patent examiners, and reaffirms the existing jurisprudence maintaining that only natural persons, not AI tools, can be listed as inventors. However, the Guidance clarifies that AI-assisted inventions are not automatically ineligible for patent protection so long as one or more natural persons “significantly contributed” to the invention. Overall, the Guidance underscores the need for a balanced approach to inventorship that acknowledges both technological advancements and human innovation. The USPTO is seeking public feedback on the Guidance, which is due by May 13, 2024.
Quantum Computing and the Financial Sector: World Economic Forum Lays Out Roadmap Towards Quantum Security
Quantum technology is seen as having the potential to revolutionize many aspects of technology, the economy and society, including the financial sector. At the same time, this technology represents a significant threat to cybersecurity, especially due to its potential to render most current encryption schemes obsolete.
Generative AI Will Stay Top of Mind in 2024
The following post was originally included as part of our recently published memorandum “Selected Issues for Boards of Directors in 2024”.
Artificial Intelligence (AI), and in particular, generative AI, will continue to be an issue in the year to come, as new laws and regulations, agency guidance, continuing and additional litigation on AI and new AI-related partnerships will prompt headlines and require companies to continually think about these issues.
White House Unveils Executive Order on the Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence
On October 30, 2023, the Biden Administration issued a landmark Executive Order on the Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence (the “Order”), directing the establishment of new standards for artificial intelligence (“AI”) safety and security and laying the foundation to ensure the protection of Americans’ privacy and civil rights, support for American workers, promotion of responsible innovation, competition and collaboration, while advancing America’s role as a world leader with respect to AI.
Copyright Office Considers New DMCA Carveout for AI Anti-Bias Research
On October 19, 2023, the U.S. Copyright Office announced in the Federal Register that it will consider a proposed exemption to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s (“DMCA”) anti-circumvention provisions which prohibit the circumvention of any technological measures used to prevent unauthorized access to copyrighted works. The exemption would allow those researching bias in artificial intelligence (“AI”) to bypass any technological measures that limit the use of copyrighted generative AI models.