WASP-HS Cluster "The Rule of AI - AI, Regulation and Society

Group information

Overview: This cluster examines both how AI is regulated and how AI transforms regulatory processes. It aims to understand the dynamics shaping AI governance and the role of AI in compliance and policy implementation. By fostering interdisciplinary dialogue, this cluster seeks to shape the future of AI governance in Sweden and beyond.

Involved universities and research institutes: Institute for Futures Studies, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm University, Umeå University, Uppsala University, Örebro University

Aims of the Cluster: Over the past decade, the rapid and unprecedented advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has brought significant benefits to individuals and society, while also introducing new risks related to safety, health, fundamental rights, democracy, the rule of law, and the environment, among others. Regulatory frameworks seek to steer AI innovation and determine how AI systems can be designed, developed and used to mitigate the risks and uncertainties arising from this changing socio-technical landscape. At the same time, AI systems increasingly shape and transform regulatory compliance, enforcement and the form of regulatory rules, reconfiguring the way we seek to regulate – with its own set of promises, risks and uncertainties for society. As concluded by Harari “The twenty-first century will be dominated by the algorithms” affecting our lives in every way. This development is a fundamental transformation and paradigmatic shift changing not only regulatory processes, but the very basis of regulation.

Against this backdrop, this cluster consists of two overarching research strands to strengthen interdisciplinary research, capacity building and collaboration so as to advance impactful, cutting-edge research at the forefront of the intersections between AI, regulation and society:

• AI Regulation in Action - What Does it Mean and How Does it Work?
This research strand examines how different regulatory frameworks (such as EU law, Swedish law, and private standards) have responded to AI as a new object of regulation. It critically analyzes how regulation is designed to shape AI systems, the structure and functioning of regulatory architectures, and how regulatory requirements are interpreted and implemented in the design, development, deployment and use of AI systems.

• Regulating through AI - New Methods of Regulating
The second research strand investigates how AI is reshaping regulatory processes themselves. AI technologies are fundamentally recasting how regulators formulate and disseminate regulatory rules and monitor and enforce regulatory requirements. Regulatees, such as business and other organizations subject to regulation, are in turn, harnessing AI technologies to augment and automate their regulatory compliance decision-making and practices.

This research cluster explores the intersections between regulation, AI and society. It is informed by a broad socio-legal understanding of regulation as intentional, goal-directed, problem-solving attempts at ordering undertaken by both state and non-state actors. This understanding of regulation decenters both the state and law, recognizes that power and control are fragmented across multiple actors and that regulation seeks to alter behavior and manage risks through diverse strategies. Central to our understanding of the relationship between regulation, AI and society is to move beyond a narrow view of AI as a mere technical artefact. Drawing on Science and Technology Studies (STS), this research cluster understands AI as a socio-technical system where technical artefacts, human agents and social institutions shape and are shaped by each other. This understanding of AI not only expands the objects of AI regulation, but also foregrounds the co-constitutive relationship between regulation and AI. Regulation shapes AI’s development, while AI also disrupts and redefines regulatory practices. Furthermore, the research in this cluster is based on the recognition that “rules in the books” are only a starting point in understanding how regulation works. How regulation works depends upon how regulatory requirements are understood, interpreted and translated into action on the ground.

Researchers:

Liane Colonna
Mauro Zamboni
Stanley Greenstein
Samuel Carey
Silvia A. Caretta

Katja de Vries
Jenny Eriksson
Jenny Lundström
Johanna Chamberlain
Donal Casey
Andreas Kotsios
Hajo Holtz
Jason Crawford
Yulia Razmetaeva

Lena Enqvist

Jason Tucker

Ana Nordberg

Matilda Arvidsson

Research Projects:

WASP-HS: Politics of AI & Health: From Snake Oil to Social Good

WASP-HS: AI and Law

WASP-HS: AI and the Financial Markets: Accountability and Risk Management with Legal Tools

WASP-HS: An Empirical Perspective on Challenges and Opportunities of the European Data Act for SMEs in the Swedish Creative Industry