Tracking evolving policy paradigms in a hallmark year for AI governance

As 2024 comes to a close, the global landscape for artificial intelligence policy and regulation has seen remarkable advances since the Global AI Law and Policy Tracker was last updated in February 2024. Since the last update, the EU has passed landmark comprehensive AI legislation in the form of the AI Act and the U.S. has seen state regulations bloom alongside targeted executive action.

Elsewhere, Australia, the U.K. and several South American countries have continued to forge their own paths toward developing laws and policies on AI governance. Several multilateral agreements have come about, including the Council of Europe's Framework Convention on AI. The AI Summit in Seoul resulted in agreements for cooperation among AI Safety Institutes, although China has broken off from the group originally convened at Bletchley Park while remaining committed to multilateral cooperation.

On 1 Aug., the EU AI Act officially entered into force. While the act is included in the Global AI Law and Policy Tracker, the IAPP has diligently provided additional guidance for organizations impacted within the EU, as well as those impacted by the act's extraterritorial scope, which can be found in the following resources: Top 10 Operational Impacts of the EU AI Act and EU AI Act: 101.

The AI Act also spurred the creation of two different entities, the AI Office and the AI Board, both of which will be involved with implementing the new law. The increased regulatory burden from the AI Act will be felt by any organization doing business in the EU, and compliance measures range from giving notice when interacting with an AI-based system to outright bans on certain systems.