The regulatory landscape for Artificial Intelligence (AI) is shaping up on both sides of the Atlantic, with the newly announced US Executive Order on Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy AI and associated guidance, the EU AI Act and the recently adopted G7 AI Code of Conduct among the main (deployed and proposed) regulatory guideposts. This discussion is the last and only public panel following a day-long workshop co-sponsored by the Data Science Institute at Brown University. The panel addresses the main challenges for regulating artificial intelligence and asks what policies can foster innovation while alleviating existing harms and biases and preventing future ones.

Guido Brinkel is Head of Regulatory Policy and Director Corporate Affairs at Microsoft Germany, where he is responsible for the external political and regulatory relations regarding tech regulation, cybersecurity, and data protection. Previously he served as Head of Public Affairs for United Internet in Berlin and Brussels. From 2007 until 2011, Brinkel served as Head of the Media Policy Department at BITKOM, Germany´s largest ICT association. He is member of the boards of the German Association for Voluntary Self-Regulation of Digital Media service providers (FSM e.V.) and of Selbstregulierung Informationswirtschaft e.V. (SRIW).

Regine Grienberger is the Cyber Ambassador at the Federal Foreign Office. Previous to her role as Cyber Ambassador, Grienberger was Deputy Chief of Staff of the Minister’s Office (Gabriel and Maas), Deputy Head of Division for European economic and financial policy, and desk officer for EU Agricultural Policy, with responsibility for crisis management in pandemics, among other areas. Grienberger served as a diplomat in both Italy and Slovenia.

Kirsten Rulf is Partner & Associate Director at Boston Consulting Group. Prior to joining BCG, Kirsten was senior Digital Policy Advisor to German Chancellors Angela Merkel and Olaf Scholz and the Head of the Digital and Data Department at the Federal Chancellery of Germany for more than four years. In that role, she co-negotiated the EU AI Act, Data Act, and all other European digital regulation, and was responsible for Germany’s strategic positioning and global investments in digital technology and infrastructure. She also taught AI and compliance at Harvard Law School and ran a research group on autonomous vehicles at Harvard Kennedy School.

Suresh Venkatasubramanian is Professor of Computer Science and Data Science at Brown University and former Assistant Director for Science and Justice in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, in which capacity he helped co-author the Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights.

This program was made possible through the generous support from Microsoft Deutschland GmbH.