CYIL vol. 12 (2021)

CYIL 12 (2021) REPORT FROM THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE SOLAIR 2021 Report from the International Conference

SOLAIR 2021: Artificial Intelligence from the Perspective of Horizontal and Sectoral Legislation

In September 2021, the Institute of State and Law organized jointly with its partners the fourth year of the international conference SOLAIR (Society, Law, Artificial Intelligence, and Robotics). This conference traditionally examines issues related to policy and regulation of artificial intelligence and interrelated technologies. Each year focuses on a specific topic. The main topic of this year’s conference was horizontal and sectoral legislation for AI. SOLAIR is an interdisciplinary conference whose purpose is to bring together specialists from various fields and spheres, including academia, business, government, and public policy, to discuss the issue of AI regulation from multiple perspectives. This also includes representatives of international organizations and bodies. Therefore, the conference was organized jointly by the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL), the Institute of State and Law of the Czech Academy of Sciences, the Office of the Government of the Czech Republic, the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic, the Ministry of Finance of the Czech Republic, the International Institute for the Unification of Private Law (UNIDROIT), the Czech Academy of Sciences, Microsoft, Happenee, and the initiative CzechWomen in Artificial Intelligence. The conference was also organized under the auspices of Věra Jourová, Vice President of the European Commission for Values and Transparency; Alena Schillerová, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance; and Eva Zažímalová, President of the Czech Academy of Sciences. The conference was supported by the program Strategy AV 21 and by the program Czech Republic – The Country for the Future. Given the pandemic situation, the conference was organized only in a virtual form and was streamed on 9 and 10 September 2021 from a virtual studio in Prague. The conference was opened on the first day with welcome notes and opening addresses by Ondřej Beránek , Vice-President of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Věra Jourová , Vice President of the European Commission for Values and Transparency, Milena Hrdinková , State Secretary for European Affairs at the Government Office of the Czech Republic, Petr Očko , Deputy Minister for Digitalization and Innovation at the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic, and Alex Ivančo , Department Director for Financial Markets III at the Ministry of Finance of the Czech Republic. The speakers mainly briefly introduced the latest developments in AI public policy and regulation in their institutions. This panel and most of the consequent panels were moderated by the conference Chair, Alžběta Krausová . The first keynote panel focused primarily on the European approach to regulating AI. Irina Orssich , Head of Sector for AI Policy at the European Commission, DG CONNECT, introduced the policy and regulatory activities of the European Commission, namely the recent proposal of the Artificial Intelligence Act. She especially highlighted the risk-based approach of the new AI Act. Cornelia Kutterer , Senior Director, Rule of Law, Responsible Tech & Competition, European Government Affairs at Microsoft, presented how Microsoft operationalizes AI ethical principles in practice and how Microsoft reacted to the proposed AI Act. In the second keynote panel, representatives of international orgnizations provided participants with updates on their activities with regard to AI policy and international

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