How regulators are mitigating the risk of extinction from AI: Law Decoded, May 29–June 5
3 min read
The lively discussion around artificial intelligence (AI) continues. Last week, dozens of AI experts — including the CEOs of OpenAI, Google DeepMind and Anthropic — signed an open statement with a single sentence: “Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war.”
Despite the ominous statement, there is no shortage of regulatory efforts to mitigate the negative impacts of AI. In China, the “improvement of governance” in digital data and AI is being discussed by President Xi Jinping and prominent members of the Communist party. The Australian government has announced a sudden eight-week consultation that will seek to understand whether any “high-risk” AI tools should be banned.
Italian Senator Marco Lombardo found a creative way to join the discussion by performing a speech entirely composed by OpenAI’s ChatGPT-4. He also trained the chatbot with the draft law of the Italian-Swiss agreement on cross-border workers, which was the topic of the meeting, along with other recent developments on the subject.
In Japan, the government’s AI strategy council blows the whistle on the lack of laws protecting copyright from AI. The Personal Information Protection Commission has demanded OpenAI minimize the sensitive data it collects for machine learning purposes. Previously, local politicians voiced support for AI, with Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno even saying Japan would consider incorporating AI technology into government systems.
CNHC stablecoin issuer detained by Chinese police
Employees of Trust Reserve — the issuer of the Chinese yuan-pegged stablecoin CNH Coin (CNHC) — have been detained by Chinese police. The company’s office in Pudong, Shanghai, was empty as of May 31. The door was sealed on May 29, with a notice saying, “Judicial seizure, strictly no vandalism.” In March, Trust Reserve secured $10 million in funding in a round led by KuCoin Ventures, the venture capital arm of the major cryptocurrency exchange.
Binance to delist privacy tokens in France, Italy, Spain and Poland
Starting from June 26, privacy tokens, such as Monero (XMR) and Zcash (ZEC), will no longer be available for trading for Binance customers in France, Italy, Poland and Spain. The new restrictions affect a total of 12 coins: Decred (DCR), Dash (DASH), ZEC, Horizen (ZEN), PIVX (PIVX), Navcoin (NAV), Secret (SCRT), Verge (XVG), Firo (FIRO), Beam (BEAM), XMR and MobileCoin (MOB).
The move comes as part of ongoing compliance processes within the company. “While we aim to support as many quality projects as possible, we are required to follow local laws and regulations regarding the trading of privacy coins to ensure we can continue to serve as many users as we can,” a Binance representative told Cointelegraph.
EU officials sign MiCA into law
Sweden’s minister for rural affairs, Peter Kullgren, and European Parliament President Roberta Metsola signed the long-anticipated Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) cryptocurrency regulatory framework into law roughly three years after the European Commission introduced the measure. The framework is expected to come into effect following publication in the Official Journal of the European Union, with many of MiCA’s regulations on crypto firms likely starting sometime in 2024.
US lawmakers aim to limit the SEC’s power with a new bill
Lawmakers in the United States House Financial Services Committee and House Agriculture Committee have released a draft discussion offering certain crypto assets a pathway to being labeled digital commodities. The draft bill would prohibit the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) from denying digital asset trading platforms from registering as a regulated alternative trading system, allowing such firms to offer “digital commodities and payment stablecoins.”
Specifically, the proposed legislation cracks down on the SEC’s approach, which many in the crypto space have criticized. The framework under the bill would allow certain digital assets to qualify as digital commodities if they are “functional and considered decentralized,” and would require the SEC to provide a “detailed analysis” of any objections to a classification of a firm as decentralized.
