AI Update: President Trump Signs Executive Order on Artificial Intelligence
Today, President Trump signed an Executive Order (“EO”), “Maintaining American Leadership in Artificial Intelligence,” that launches a coordinated federal government strategy for Artificial Intelligence (the “AI Initiative”). Among other things, the AI Initiative aims to solidify American leadership in AI by empowering federal agencies to drive breakthroughs in AI research and development (“R&D”) (including by making data computing resources available to the AI research community), to establish technological standards to support reliable and trustworthy systems that use AI, to provide guidance with respect to regulatory approaches, and to address issues related to the AI workforce. The Administration’s EO is the latest of at least 18 other countries’ national AI strategies, and signals that investment in artificial intelligence will continue to escalate in the near future—as will deliberations with respect to how AI-based technologies should be governed.
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Net Neutrality Update: California and the United States Agree to Stay Further Proceedings Pending Review of FCC Order
In exchange for a stay of the proceedings in both United States v. California and American Cable Association v. Becerra, California has agreed not to enforce its new net neutrality law, SB 822, pending the resolution of Mozilla Corp. v. FCC, the lawsuit challenging the FCC’s Restoring Internet Freedom Order (“Order”). The Order had repealed Obama-era net neutrality rules. SB 822, which we previously discussed here, was scheduled to go into effect on January 1, 2019, and contains the most stringent net neutrality requirements of any state. When the law was passed on September 30, the U.S. Department of Justice immediately sued California, arguing it was preempted by the FCC’s Order.
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California Adopts Net Neutrality Law; Court Hearing Scheduled for Nov. 14
On September 30, California Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill to apply net neutrality rules to Internet Service Providers (“ISPs”) operating in that state. California is not the first state to enact legislation on net neutrality, but its bill contains the most stringent requirements yet. The Trump Administration and multiple ISPs have sued to prevent the new law from going into effect, arguing that it conflicts with federal law. The first hearing on the legal challenge will take place on November 14.
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IoT and AI Update: California Legislature Passes Bills on Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence, and Chatbots
The California legislature recently passed three bills meant to address rapidly-developing technologies including the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence (AI), and chatbots.
Internet of Things. At the end of August, California became the first state to promulgate regulations requiring security features for Internet-connected devices. Senate Bill 327 requires that a manufacturer of a connected device equip the device with “reasonable security features” that are (1) appropriate to the nature and function of the device; (2) appropriate to the information it may collect, contain, or transmit; and (3) designed to protect the device and any information contained therein from unauthorized access, destruction, use, modification, or disclosure.
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AI Update: Equal Justice Under Bots—Artificial Intelligence and Legal Practice
Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) is quickly becoming a part of everyday life. As AI-based technologies advance, even law firms are harnessing them to improve the efficiency and caliber of their work – despite law firms’ reputations for being old-fashioned, traditional, and perhaps a tinge out-of-date. The reasons are obvious: AI-based tools can help reduce lawyer time spent on routine tasks that would otherwise add greatly to the expense of increasingly complex matters (thereby enabling lawyers to deliver more value at less cost to their clients). In addition, these tools can help attorneys meet the increased discovery and research demands wrought by the digitization of communications, documents, and other pieces of information.
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States Battle to Resurrect Net Neutrality Rules
On December 14, 2017, the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) voted along party lines to adopt a 210-page Declaratory Ruling, Report and Order, and Order (the “Restoring Internet Freedom Order” or “Order”) geared towards overhauling the net neutrality framework established during the Obama administration in 2015 (the “2015 Order”). On February 22nd, the Order was officially published in the Federal Register — kicking off the period for filing of court challenges to the FCC’s decision and for efforts by Democrats in Congress to signal dissent through passing a resolution of disapproval under the Congressional Review Act.
Against the backdrop of these actions at the federal level, for the past few months several states have taken matters into their own hands and begun proposing their own ways to restore the 2015 Order’s net neutrality rules within their borders. Such efforts, even if successful at the state level, will likely be met in the courts by the Restoring Internet Freedom Order’s explicit statement that the Order preempts all “inconsistent state and local regulations.”
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