Governance and Regulation of Emerging Technologies

This conference is closed to the public

Immersive technologies, AI, blockchain, as well as genomics, biotechnologies, and other emerging technologies are outpacing regulation, disrupting traditional business models, and defying institutional and administrative boundaries, at national and international levels. The multifaceted issues and challenges brought by the 4th industrial revolution pose new governance challenges for policymakers and regulators and raise new ethical concerns for innovators and users. 

Besides the characterization of the specific challenges and risks posed by each emerging technology, the identification of their existing or anticipated applications, and the analysis of the (innovative) business models and of the triggered markets, emerging technologies might call for the development of common governance and regulation principles, which might be informed by the study of different present and past experiences. 

This academic workshop shed new light on the major challenges to be addressed when attempting to regulate emerging technologies. The contributions also explored new approaches to steer innovation processes, combining proactive and reactive procedures. These approaches should certainly rely on a multiplicity of ‘levers’ (command and control, competition policy, user protection, public procurement, standardization, etc.), the building of multistakeholder governance frameworks in various formats, and the design of cooperation and coordination mechanisms at the sectoral, national, and supranational levels.

Friday, December 15, 2023

8:45am - 9am : Welcome address by Eric Brousseau, Paris Dauphine-PSL University

9am - 10.30am : Lessons from History

• 9am - 9.45am : Edward Balleisen, Duke University - "Historical Perspectives on the Regulation of Emerging Technologies in the United States"
• 9.45am - 10.30am : William E. Kovacic, George Washington University - "Governance and Regulation in the Atomic Age: The Development of Civilian Applications of Nuclear Power in the United States After World War II"

10.30am - 11am : Coffee break

11am - 12.30pm : Agile Regulation Addressing Technological Challenges

• 11am - 11.45am : Karen Yeung, University of Birmingham - "How can existing governance norms, principles and institutional architectures be reformed to address the threats posed by foundational models in AI in a principled, democratic and timely manner?"
• 11.45am - 12.30pm : Victoria Nash, University of Oxford - "From content to systems: evolving regulatory norms in tackling online harms"

12.30pm - 2pm : Lunch

2pm - 3.30pm : Policy Frameworks

• 2pm - 2.45pm : Jeroen Van den Hoven, Delft University of Technology - "Responsible Innovation revisited"
• 2.45pm - 3.30pm : Douglas Robinson and David Winickoff, OECD - "A new OECD draft Framework for the anticipatory governance of emerging technologies"

3.30pm - 5pm : Dealing with the Complexity of Innovation Ecosystems

• 3.30pm - 4.15pm : Jean-Michel Dalle, Sorbonne University - "Data-driven Insights on the Role of Venture Capital for Emerging Technologies"
• 4.15pm - 5pm : Alexandre de Streel, University of Namur - "Regulation and Complexity"

5pm - 5.30pm : Coffee break

5.30pm - 7pm : Governing Emergence, thus Uncertainty

• 5.30pm - 6.15pm : Eric Brousseau, Kalli Giannelos, Joëlle Toledano, University of Paris Dauphine-PSL - "Regulatory frontiers: anticipatory governance and speculation on the Metaverse"
• 6.15pm - 7pm : Rob Reich, Stanford University - "Governance of Emerging Technologies: The Case of AI Norms, Standards, and Policies"

Saturday, December 16, 2023

8:30am - 10am : Governing Emergence, thus Uncertainty

• 8.30am - 9.15am : Joris van Hoboken, Vrije Universiteit Brussels & University of Amsterdam - "The Law and Governance of Quantum Technologies"
• 9.15am - 10am : Pierre-Benoît Joly, National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food, and the Environment, France - Governing emerging technologies in the Anthropocene - The case of gene editing, agriculture, food, and the environment"

10am - 10.30am : Coffee break

10.30am - 12.45pm : Risks, Ethics, and Law

• 10.30am - 11.15am : Daniel Andler, Paris-Sorbonne University - "What is the place of AI ethics?"
• 11.15am - 12pm : Pierre Larouche, University of Montreal - "Between permission and protection: AI as a challenge to established approaches to law and innovation"
• 12pm - 12.45pm : Florence G'sell, University of Lorraine & Stanford University - "Can the systemic risk framework be applied to the challenges associated with foundational models?"

12.45pm - 2.15pm : Lunch

2.15pm - 3.30pm : Wrap-up