Innovation, Quantum-AI Technology & Law

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Blog over juridische, sociale, ethische en policy aspecten van Kunstmatige Intelligentie, Quantum Computing, Sensing & Communication, Augmented Reality en Robotica, Big Data Wetgeving en Machine Learning Regelgeving. Kennisartikelen inzake de EU AI Act, de Data Governance Act, cloud computing, algoritmes, privacy, virtual reality, blockchain, robotlaw, smart contracts, informatierecht, ICT contracten, online platforms, apps en tools. Europese regels, auteursrecht, chipsrecht, databankrechten en juridische diensten AI recht.

Berichten met de tag Mark Brongersma
IOP Quantum Science and Technology publishes Ten Principles for Responsible Quantum Innovation

Stanford, April 22, 2024—The leading peer-reviewed journal Quantum Science and Technology has published the open-access article, "Ten Principles for Responsible Quantum Innovation," a significant paper that offers actionable guidance for the ethical development of quantum technologies. The publication is the result of a two-year, deeply interdisciplinary study by a transatlantic group of leading scholars and represents a major step forward in operationalizing a framework for responsible quantum innovation.

This work builds upon the foundational research of the group, including the "Towards Responsible Quantum Technology" paper published by the Harvard Berkman Klein Center, and will be central to the mission of the Stanford Center for Responsible Quantum Technology.

A Global, Interdisciplinary Collaboration

The paper is a testament to the power of global, interdisciplinary collaboration. Authored by a spectacular team of leading lights in law, philosophy & ethics, socioeconomics, data science, quantum physics, materials science & engineering, and innovation policy, the study brings together a wealth of expertise from the world's most prestigious academic institutions.

The author group, led by Mauritz Kop of Stanford University, includes Mateo Aboy (University of Cambridge), Eline De Jong (University of Amsterdam), Urs Gasser (Technical University of Munich), Timo Minssen (University of Copenhagen), I. Glenn Cohen (Harvard University), Mark Brongersma (Stanford University), Teresa Quintel (Maastricht University), Luciano Floridi (University of Oxford and Yale University), and Raymond Laflamme (University of Waterloo). This formidable team provides a holistic and robust foundation for the quantum governance principles outlined in the paper.

A Framework for Responsible Quantum Innovation

The paper's central contribution is a set of ten guiding principles designed to operationalize a framework for Responsible Quantum Technology (RQT). This framework seeks to integrate considerations of the Ethical, Legal, Social, and Policy Implications (ELSPI) of quantum technologies directly into the research and development lifecycle, while also responding to the core dimensions of Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI): anticipation, inclusion, reflection, and responsiveness.

The principles are organized into three functional categories, termed the SEA framework, which provides a methodological guide for the quantum community:

  • Safeguarding: This pillar focuses on the proactive identification and mitigation of risks associated with quantum technologies.

  • Engaging: This principle emphasizes the critical need for inclusive and continuous dialogue among all stakeholders, from researchers and industry to policymakers and the public.

  • Advancing: This pillar is dedicated to ensuring that quantum technology is actively steered towards desirable societal outcomes and contributes to addressing the world's most pressing challenges.

The Ten Principles for Responsible Quantum Innovation

The Ten Principles paper proposes the following ten actionable principles to help address the risks, challenges, and opportunities associated with the entire suite of second-generation quantum technologies:

  1. Information Security: Make information security an integral part of QT, proactively addressing security threats, including the risk quantum computers pose to current encryption standards.

  2. Dual Use: Proactively anticipate the malicious use of quantum applications by addressing the risks of dual-use technologies that can be employed for both beneficial and harmful purposes.

  3. Quantum Race: Seek international collaboration based on shared values to address the winner-takes-all dynamics of a potential quantum arms race.

  4. Quantum Gap: Consider our planet as the sociotechnical environment in which QT should function, engaging states to ensure equitable access and prevent a "quantum divide."

  5. Intellectual Property: Incentivize innovation while being as open as possible and as closed as necessary, engaging institutions to find the right balance between protecting intellectual property and fostering an open research environment.

  6. Inclusion: Pursue diverse R&D communities in terms of disciplines and people, engaging a wide range of voices to ensure a holistic approach to innovation.

  7. Societal Relevance: Link quantum R&D explicitly to desirable societal goals, advancing society by focusing on applications that address pressing needs.

  8. Complementary Innovation: Actively stimulate sustainable, cross-disciplinary innovation, advancing technology by exploring synergies with other fields like AI and biotechnology.

  9. Responsibility: Create an ecosystem to learn about the possible uses and consequences of QT applications, advancing our understanding of Responsible QT through continuous feedback and assessment.

  10. Education and Dialogue: Facilitate dialogues with stakeholders to better envision possible quantum futures, advancing our collective thinking and education about QT and its impact.

A Catalyst for a Values-Based Quantum Future

The overarching objective of this interdisciplinary effort is to steer the development and use of quantum technology in a direction that is not only consistent with a values-based society but also actively contributes to solving its most significant challenges. The "Ten Principles for Responsible Quantum Innovation" provides a crucial foundation for this work.

The paper is a call to action for the entire quantum community—researchers, industry leaders, policymakers, and the public—to engage in the vital work of building a responsible quantum ecosystem. As the authors conclude, the goal is to develop and operationalize these guiding principles into the best practices and real-world applications that will define the quantum future. The annual Stanford RQT Conference, among other initiatives, will continue to provide a forum for these critical, interdisciplinary discussions.

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Stanford University Launches Stanford Center for Responsible Quantum Technology

Stanford, CA – December 6, 2023 – Stanford University today announced the launch of the Stanford Center for Responsible Quantum Technology (RQT), a pioneering initiative dedicated to addressing the profound ethical, legal, social, and policy implications of the rapidly advancing field of quantum technologies, including quantum artificial intelligence (QAI). The Center, part of the Stanford Program in Law, Science & Technology (LST) at Stanford Law School (SLS), is believed to be the first academic center of its kind.

Dutch Network for Academics in the USA Semicon, Geopolitics and Shared Values Event

The announcement was made during a distinguished Dutch Network for Academics in the USA event focused on semicon, geopolitics and shared democratic values, presented by the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR). The occasion was graced by the presence of outgoing Netherlands Prime Minister Mark Rutte, Nobel Prize winner and Stanford School of Business Professor Guido Imbens, Stephen Harris Professor of Materials Science and Engineering Mark Brongersma, and William H. Neukom Professor of Law Mark Lemley, who is also the Director of the LST program and serves as the faculty leader of the new Quantum Institute.

Mauritz Kop Founding Director of the Stanford Center for Responsible Quantum Technology

Mauritz Kop, who founded and directs the Center and began his tenure as a Transatlantic Technology Law Forum Fellow at Stanford Law School in 2019, highlighted the critical juncture at which the Center is being established. "Quantum technologies—especially in the areas of encryption, computing, and sensors—were rapidly evolving from hypothetical ideas to commercial realities," Kop observed. "Here, I determined, was where the most interesting–and pressing–questions of law and policy lay. Put simply, quantum technology involves the smallest particles in the universe but has the potential to create some of the world’s biggest technological quandaries and opportunities."

Stanford University Library RQT Scholarship Repository of Selected Works: https://purl.stanford.edu/hp536nb5631

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Towards Responsible Quantum Technology published by Harvard Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society

Boston, MA, March 21, 2023—In a landmark contribution to the global dialogue on technology governance, the Harvard Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society has published the foundational article, "Towards Responsible Quantum Technology." This significant work, the result of a deeply interdisciplinary and transatlantic collaboration, lays out a comprehensive conceptual framework for steering the development of quantum technologies (QT) in a direction that is safe, ethical, and aligned with democratic values.

The manuscript, which was also published in the Hastings Science & Technology Law Journal by the University of California, College of the Law, San Francisco, and in the University of Cambridge repository -with preprints at Stanford Law, ArxiV and the European Commission’s Futurium website- represents a concerted effort to get ahead of the regulatory curve. It argues for a proactive, principled approach to governance while the technology is still malleable, learning from the often-reactive postures taken with previous technological waves like AI and the internet.

A Transatlantic Constellation of Scholars

The paper is authored by a distinguished group of international scholars led by Mauritz Kop, Visiting ‘Quantum & Law’ Scholar at Stanford and the imminent Founding Director of the Stanford Center for Responsible Quantum Technology. The team represents a formidable convergence of expertise from the world's leading academic institutions, including Stanford, Harvard, Oxford, Yale, Cambridge, the University of Waterloo, and the Universities of Munich, Amsterdam, Maastricht, and Copenhagen.

This collaboration brought together leading lights in law, data science, theoretical quantum physics, philosophy and ethics, socioeconomics, materials science and engineering, and innovation policy. The author group includes Mateo Aboy, Eline De Jong, Urs Gasser, I. Glenn Cohen, Timo Minssen, Teresa Quintel, Mark Brongersma, Luciano Floridi, and Raymond Laflamme, whose collective insights provide a holistic and robust foundation for the proposed framework.

The RQT Framework: Integrating Quantum-ELSPI and RRI

At the heart of the paper is the conceptual framework for Responsible Quantum Technology (RQT). This framework is designed to systematically integrate considerations of the Ethical, Legal, Social, and Policy Implications (ELSPI) of quantum technologies directly into the research and development lifecycle.

The RQT framework is built upon the established dimensions of Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI)—anticipation, inclusion, reflection, and responsiveness. By merging these two approaches, Quantum-ELSPI and RRI, the authors have created a powerful tool for ensuring that the development of quantum is not driven solely by technical or commercial imperatives, but by a deep and abiding commitment to societal well-being.

Operationalizing Responsible Quantum Technology: The 10 Principles and Future Regulation

The "Towards Responsible Quantum Technology" paper is the first in a series of studies designed to build a comprehensive governance architecture. It lays the conceptual groundwork that is further operationalized in a subsequent study led by Kop, the "10 Principles for Responsible Quantum Innovation." This second paper translates the high-level SEA framework into concrete, actionable principles for real-world application.

Ultimately, the RQT framework is intended to inform the emergent regulatory landscape for quantum technology. The authors provide an outlook on how regulatory interventions can be designed and contextualized to be effective without stifling innovation. By tailoring governance to the exceptional nature of quantum, the goal is to reduce the risk of unintended, counterproductive policy effects and to foster a thriving, responsible, and values-based quantum ecosystem. The paper concludes with a call to action for the research community and other stakeholders to build upon this foundational work, to further develop the guiding principles, and to translate them into the best practices that will define the quantum future.

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Integrating Bespoke IP Regimes for Quantum Technology into National Security Policy

Should countries be able to treat quantum technology the way they treat fissionable materials—suspending patents and trade-secret enforcement when national security demands it? That is the provocative proposal at the center of Integrating Bespoke IP Regimes for Quantum Technology into National Security Policy, a 2021 Stanford working paper by Mauritz Kop and Mark Brongersma, posted as a preprint. The authors argue that quantum needs innovation-policy mechanisms cut to the physics of the very small, then folded into national security law.

A bespoke regime for a dual-use technology

Quantum, the authors observe, is an early-stage family of technologies—comparable to the transistor in the 1960s—whose dual-use character spans civil benefit and military harm. Because appropriable value lives simultaneously in hardware, software, and trade secrets, a legal regime borrowed wholesale from software or biotech will misfire. The paper surveys a toolkit drawn from adjacent fields—AI, biotechnology, nanotechnology, semiconductors, and nuclear—and argues that intellectual property and antitrust law must work in concert so that quantum does not deepen existing inequalities. Their guiding stance is twofold and deliberately paradoxical: treat quantum as genuinely unprecedented, but also learn from the history of adjacent technologies. This work runs alongside the market-power analysis Kop would later develop in intellectual property in quantum computing and market power, carrying the inquiry from competition theory into the harder terrain of national security law.

Pro-quantum antitrust and democratized access

Concretely, the authors weigh pro-quantum antitrust enforcement, the waiving and pledging of IP including compulsory licenses, and the democratization of essential technology. They confront the tension honestly: leading quantum startups have relied on IP protection—especially trade secrets—to raise capital, yet enclosing the foundational concepts of quantum computation and communication risks entrenching winner-takes-all dynamics against a community consensus on the right to equal access. Beyond IP, they catalog prizes, subsidies, state funding, and education as further levers for incentivizing progress.

A new TRIPS security exception

The paper's signature proposal is a new Article 73(b)(iv) security exception to the TRIPS Agreement, giving states the strategic option to exclude quantum technologies from IP protection—mirroring how the existing exception treats fissionable materials, and capable of serving either disclosure or secrecy. Situating quantum within a longer pendulum of open and closed innovation, the authors warn against a convergence of overstretched IP rights and progress made in secret, and close with a call for further multidisciplinary research. The result is a structured agenda for designing quantum innovation policy attuned to both its physics and its geopolitics, complementing the call for a strategic technology alliance among democratic countries.

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