Technology; Media and Telecommunications Archives - Page 2 of 6

Addressing Legal Challenges on AI Development and Use

Insights | December 23, 2024 | Practice Area: Data, Intellectual Property, Litigation and Arbitration, Regulatory, Technology; Media and Telecommunications

The recent lawsuit by Asian News International against OpenAI in the Delhi High Court mirrors global trends involving allegations that large language models (“LLMs”) are being trained on copyrighted material without authorization or licenses, leading to copyright infringement. For the purpose of balancing innovation with compliance, artificial intelligence (“AI”) developers in India must take proactive measures to navigate the complex interplay of copyright, data protection and liability issues. By securing licensing agreements, clarifying the scope of ‘fair use’ under copyright law, offering indemnities to users, and preparing for court-directed compliance actions, AI developers can mitigate risks and build legally compliant AI systems.

Lessons from OpenAI: Boards and the Spin of Corporate Governance

Insights | November 18, 2024 | Practice Area: Corporate Governance and ESG, General Corporate, Private Equity, Technology; Media and Telecommunications

Widely regarded as the most innovative AI organization in the world, OpenAI’s management model presents a unique approach to corporate governance involving a majority-independent board of directors as final decision makers. In 2023, OpenAI’s CEO was fired and immediately reinstated, within a short period of a week. Such events highlight the reality of independent corporate governance models and suggest that truly independent structures may struggle in modern business environments. This note also briefly considers removal of directors from an Indian perspective.

Investing in AI in India (Part 3): AI-related Advisories Under the Intermediary Guidelines

Insights | October 11, 2024 | Practice Area: Regulatory, Technology; Media and Telecommunications

This note, the third of a multi-part series on investing in the Indian artificial intelligence (“AI”) sector, discusses a set of advisories (“AI Advisories”) with respect to the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 (“Intermediary Guidelines”), focusing on intermediary liability.
The definition of ‘intermediaries’ under the Information Technology Act, 2000 (which is likely to be replaced soon by the “Digital India Act”) may include a wide variety of entities, including telecommunications and network service providers, search engines, online payment sites and marketplaces, as well as social media, online gaming and e-commerce platforms. The Indian government has been actively considering the advisability of issuing a dedicated regulation with respect to AI, including via specific provisions of the Digital India Act. Until the rollout of a bespoke legal framework, the Intermediary Guidelines may be further amended in connection with AI.
At present, the language of the AI Advisories is broad enough to cover all kinds of AI tools and AI-generated content. Such broad-based application could have significant consequences for all types of players in the AI space since the standards of due diligence that relevant intermediaries need to abide by with respect to AI technologies appear to be high.

Investing in AI in India (Part 2): Tracking the Regulatory Landscape

Insights | August 27, 2024 | Practice Area: Competition/Antitrust, Data, Mergers and Acquisitions, Regulatory, Technology; Media and Telecommunications

Prospective investors in Indian artificial intelligence (“AI”) companies should familiarize themselves with the Indian government’s initiatives in AI regulation and the direction of future regulation. This note, the second of a multi-part series on investing in the Indian AI sector, outlines some of the key developments in AI in the country. However, it is important to keep in mind that India’s approach to AI governance may change in the future, given the rapidly evolving nature of technology as well as the country’s dynamic regulatory trajectory, including with respect to data, intermediary liability, digital technologies, telecommunications and digital competition, as discussed in this note.

Climate Change and ESG Considerations in India’s AI-Driven Future

Insights | August 14, 2024 | Practice Area: Clean Energy, Corporate Governance and ESG, Regulatory, Technology; Media and Telecommunications

As AI continues to transform industries in crucial ways, the training of large AI models remains highly energy- and resource-intensive, resulting in significant emissions and waste.
For countries and companies which have ambitious net-zero goals, balancing AI ambitions with existing decarbonization strategies is important. As India accelerates its journey towards becoming a global economic powerhouse, it may want to address the environmental implications of increased AI deployment, including by regulating AI with the aim of making increased adoption sustainable. Where companies are concerned, investing in ‘green AI’ will not only benefit the environment but may also enhance their ESG profiles. Going forward, the integration of climate considerations into AI policy is likely to become an important element of responsible AI development.

Investing in AI in India (Part 1): Key Considerations

Insights | July 22, 2024 | Practice Area: Data, Intellectual Property, Mergers and Acquisitions, Private Equity, Regulatory, Technology; Media and Telecommunications

While investments in the AI sector in India present significant opportunities, they also present a unique set of risks within an evolving legal and regulatory landscape.
Before making an investment decision, investors should consider IP issues, data-related rights and compliance, any industry-specific concerns, the then-applicable regulatory framework as well as potential developments in AI regulation. In addition, investors should evaluate operational and contractual arrangements, undertake a technical due diligence, and assess potential liabilities and risks. Such risks include product and professional liability, algorithmic bias and discrimination, cybersecurity and data breaches, market and reputational risks, along with concerns related to transparency and explainability.

India’s New Data Protection Regime: Tracking Updates and Preparing for Compliance

Insights | July 1, 2024 | Practice Area: Data, Regulatory, Technology; Media and Telecommunications

The Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (the “DPDP Act”), published in India’s official gazette last year, is a new law regulating the collection, storage, use and processing of personal data. The DPDP Act will take effect from the date(s) notified by the Indian Government, and different dates may be notified for different provisions of the DPDP Act. Further, several provisions of the DPDP Act require specific rules which are yet to be notified.
According to a recent statement made by the new union minister of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, the new rules are in advanced stages of drafting and are expected to be released for industry-wide consultation in the near future. Given that both rules and provisions of the DPDP Act are likely to be notified over the next few months, all entities need to check whether and to what extent the DPDP Act applies to them and their operations.
For the purpose of preparing for, and complying with, obligations under the DPDP Act, it would be advisable for all organizations to undertake data mapping exercises and data audits inter alia in order to facilitate the identification and determination of ‘personal’ information from mixed or legacy databases and/or organizational datasets.

AI-Generated Inventions: New Questions for Patent Regimes

Insights | May 29, 2024 | Practice Area: Intellectual Property, Technology; Media and Telecommunications

Since patent regimes around the world are primarily designed to reward “human” innovation, such norms may need to be revisited for the purpose of protecting inventions that are generated by artificial intelligence (“AI”).
In most jurisdictions, existing patent laws contemplate an “inventor” to (only) mean a natural person. Further, recent authoritative interpretations have been reluctant to extend the concept of inventorship to AI systems.
However, with the growing use of AI, modern technology has arrived at an inflection point where an AI algorithm can play a determinative role in the inventive process. Accordingly, the question of granting patents to AI-generated inventions has assumed additional importance, including in terms of incentivizing innovation and investments into future AI models.
Subject to new developments and priorities, legislators may want to consider options such as amending extant patent regimes, introducing a bespoke framework especially for AI-generated inventions, allowing human beings to be named as inventors to the extent of their involvement in the use or development of the AI system concerned, or even doing away with the requirement of naming an inventor for AI-generated inventions.

Opportunities in the Semiconductor Industry in India

Insights | March 18, 2024 | Practice Area: General Corporate, Mergers and Acquisitions, Regulatory, Technology; Media and Telecommunications

Semiconductors or ‘chips’ are the building blocks of electronic devices and are used in a variety of electronic devices from cars to drones as well as smartphones and computers and across various sectors, including the aerospace and defence, telecom and automotive sectors. Currently, a majority of the semiconductor manufacturing market is dominated by countries such as Taiwan, China, the United States, South Korea and Japan. India relies on semiconductor imports from these countries. While the semiconductor manufacturing industry is currently at a nascent stage in India, due to the worldwide shortage of semiconductors, over the last couple of years, India has taken active steps to tap this market.
This note outlines the key initiatives of the Government of India in relation to the semiconductor industry, regulatory framework for investment, setting up operations in India and recent developments/investments in the semiconductor industry in India.

The EU’s New Law on Artificial Intelligence: Global Implications

Insights | February 19, 2024 | Practice Area: Data, Regulatory, Technology; Media and Telecommunications

Pursuant to ‘trilogue’ negotiations among major institutions of the EU, an agreement on a proposed regulation with respect to artificial intelligence (“AI”) was arrived at in Brussels a few months ago, the text of which may be approved, published, and subsequently enter into force later this year. This is the world’s first comprehensive law on AI (the “AI Act”). According to the current draft, the AI Act should apply two years after its entry into force, likely from the second quarter of 2026.
The broad focus of this new law is a risk-based approach, based on an AI system’s capacity to cause harm. Compared to prior legislative proposals, additional elements of the current agreement include rules on high-impact general-purpose AI models that can cause systemic risk in the future, as well as on high-risk AI systems. The AI Act may set a global standard for AI regulation in other jurisdictions, just like the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) did with respect to personal information. Moreover, similar to the GDPR, one of the most important effects of the AI Act will be its extraterritorial scope, involving obligations for non-EU businesses as well.