Artificiële Intelligentie & Recht
Innovation, Quantum-AI Technology & Law
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Blog over Kunstmatige Intelligentie, Quantum, Deep Learning, Blockchain en Big Data Law

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.

World Economic Forum Quantum Computing Ethics & Governance Principles
World Economic Forum Quantum Computing Ethics & Governance Principles

During 2021, Mauritz Kop helped design the World Economic Forum Quantum Governance Principles. In January 2022, the World Economic Forum released its accompanying Quantum Computing Governance Principles Insight Report. The report and principles were developed as part of a co-design process over the course of 2021 with a diverse set of global quantum stakeholders from industry, academia and government.

Governance Principles for the Responsible Design and Adoption of Quantum Computing

In 2022, our multidisciplinary WEF expert group published the first set of governance principles for the responsible design and adoption of quantum computing technology. A global multi stakeholder initiative to create an ethical framework enabling the responsible design and adoption of quantum computing. Quantum computing, though at its early stages, will help provide very significant advances in our computing capabilities and will have a considerable impact on improving the state of the world in the coming years. It could have a revolutionary impact on human well-being, national security, and global society, along with potential commercial applications across industries.

The Quantum Computing Ethics project is part of the World Economic Forum’s Shaping the Future of Technology Governance: Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Platform.

10 Guiding Principles for Quantum Computing published at Yale

The Principles build in part on the prior 10 Guiding Principles for Quantum Computing published March 30, 2021 in the Yale Journal of Law & Technology in my article titled: Establishing a Legal-Ethical Framework for Quantum Technology.

There, I argue that the unique physical characteristics of quantum mechanics demand universal guiding principles of responsible, human-centered quantum technology. To this end, the article proposes ten guiding principles for the development and application of quantum technology. These ground rules aim to put controls in place and integrate our common democratic norms, standards and values into the design of our future hi-tech systems as much as possible

Law and ethics frequently interrelate. Ethical standards for quantum should however be a supplementation to legal measures, and not a replacement. Ethics alone can never be enough when regulating high-risk technologies like dual use quantum tech and quantum artificial intelligence. To make sure all groups of society benefit from quantum and AI we have to put controls and guardrails in place that address identified risks and incentivise sustainable innovation.

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Quantum ComputingMauritz Kopquantum computing, world economic forum (WEF), ethics, governance, Guiding Principles, Mauritz Kop
Mauritz Kop Consults Senator Mark Warner on AI & Quantum Technology Policy
Mauritz Kop Consults Senator Mark Warner on AI & Quantum Technology Policy

Washington D.C., January 4, 2022—As the United States Congress grapples with the complex challenges of regulating artificial intelligence and quantum technology, leading policymakers are seeking expert guidance to inform a robust and forward-thinking national strategy. On January 4, 2022, Mauritz Kop, a distinguished scholar in the field of technology law and governance, was consulted by the legal team of U.S. Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) to provide strategic insights on both AI and quantum technology policy.

This consultation highlights the growing recognition in Washington of the need for deep, interdisciplinary expertise to navigate the geopolitical, economic, and security dimensions of these transformative technologies. Senator Warner's team reached out to Kop based on his influential scholarship, including his extensive work at Stanford on the EU AI Act and the need for a strategic democratic tech alliance, his advisory role for the European Commission led by Ursula von der Leyen on the AI Act and Data Act, and his foundational article in the Yale Journal of Law & Technology proposing a comprehensive legal-ethical framework for quantum technology.

Senator Mark Warner: A Leader on Technology and National Security

Senator Mark Warner's engagement on these issues is both significant and timely. As the Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, he is at the forefront of addressing the national security implications of emerging technologies. His work involves overseeing the U.S. Intelligence Community and ensuring it is equipped to handle the threats and opportunities of the 21st century, where technological competition with nations like China is a central concern.

The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence has a broad mandate that includes analyzing intelligence on the technological capabilities of foreign powers and assessing the vulnerabilities of U.S. critical infrastructure. Senator Warner has been a vocal proponent of developing a national strategy for AI and quantum to maintain the United States' competitive edge and to ensure that these technologies are developed and deployed in a manner consistent with democratic values. This consultation with Mauritz Kop reflects the Senator's commitment to drawing on leading academic research to shape sound, bipartisan policy.

AI Policy: A Transatlantic, Risk-Based Approach that Lets Innovation Breathe

A key focus of the consultation was Kop's analysis of the European Union's AI Act. His Stanford publications argue for a balanced, pro-innovation regulatory model that can serve as a blueprint for international cooperation. Good governance and sensible legislation should incentivize desired behavior and simultaneously create breathing room for sustainable, beneficial innovation to flourish.

Quantum Governance: Establishing a Legal-Ethical Framework

The discussion also delved into the governance of quantum technology, drawing on Kop's seminal work in the Yale Journal of Law & Technology. Recognizing that quantum is rapidly moving from the theoretical to the practical, he stressed the urgency of establishing a legal-ethical framework before the technology is widely deployed and locked-in.

The consultation with Senator Warner's office represents a critical intersection of academic scholarship and high-level policymaking. As the United States charts its course in the era of AI and quantum, the insights provided by experts like Mauritz Kop are invaluable in ensuring that the nation's strategy is not only competitive but also responsible, ethical, and firmly rooted in democratic principles.

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Academics, Government, Governance, Geopolitics, American Law, Artificial Intelligence, Data processing, Innovation, Intellectual Property, Quantum Computing, Research, TTLFMauritz KopSenator Mark Warner, AI Policy, Quantum Technology Strategy, EU AI Act, Data Act, Risks, Democracy, National Security, Intellectual Property, Ursula Von Der Leyen, Stanford Law, Harvard, Yale, Mauritz Kop, Bipartisan Tech Policy, Economic Safety, Geopolitics
Een IPCC voor AI en opkomende technologie: het IPREDICT-voorstel aan de VN
Een IPCC voor AI en opkomende technologie: het IPREDICT-voorstel aan de VN

IPREDICT is de oproep aan de Secretaris-Generaal van de Verenigde Naties om een internationaal panel voor verantwoorde ontwikkeling van opkomende technologie op te richten — naar het model van het klimaatpanel IPCC. AIRecht-oprichter Mauritz Kop behoorde tot de internationale experts die het voorstel voorbereidden en leverde de inbreng over quantumtechnologie.

Een IPCC voor opkomende technologie

De kern is coördinatie: één onafhankelijke, interdisciplinaire bron die kunstmatige intelligentie, robotica, biotechnologie en quantumtechnologie beoordeelt vóórdat de gevolgen onomkeerbaar zijn. Het voorgestelde mandaat omvat betrouwbare informatie, expert-aanbevelingen, het aanmoedigen van verantwoorde innovatie in alle ontwikkelfasen en publieke betrokkenheid via een tweejaarlijks World Forum.

Internationale participanten

Het initiatief werd voorbereid door een breed gezelschap van wetenschappers uit recht, ethiek, robotica, AI en biotechnologie — van Princeton en Yale tot UNESCO-bioethici en SIPRI. Het is precies die multidisciplinaire mengeling die een panel als IPREDICT beoogt.

De bijdrage van AIRecht

Mauritz Kop leverde de quantum-expertise, in lijn met zijn werk aan een juridisch-ethisch kader voor verantwoorde quantumtechnologie. De achterliggende gedachte is dat anticiperende governance past bij technologie die met sprongen arriveert. Verder lezen over dat kader kan in Establishing a Legal-Ethical Framework for Quantum Technology.

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Quantum Technology, Policy, Artificial IntelligenceHenry QuentirIPREDICT, United Nations, Responsible Research and Innovation, Emerging Technology, Quantum Technology, IPCC, Governance, Mauritz Kop
Ethics in the Quantum Age
Ethics in the Quantum Age

Honored to write about Ethics in the Quantum Age in the Physics World Special on Quantum 2.0, and to be given the chance to outline an ethical framework for quantum technologies, which includes a definition of quantum-ethics.

Mauritz Kop, Why we need to consider the ethical implications of quantum technologies, Physics World, IOP Publishing, (December 1, 2021)

Physics World Special on Quantum 2.0

Physics World is the magazine of the UK-based Institute of Physics (IOP), one of the largest physical societies in the world.

Link to the article: https://physicsworld.com/a/why-we-need-to-consider-the-ethical-implications-of-quantum-technologies/

Download the Ethics in the Quantum Age article here.

We need to build bridges of mutual understanding between disciplines – a move that will involve learning to speak each other’s language, which is easier said than done. Therefore, it is a promising sign that the quantum community reaches out to lawyers, philosophers, and ethicists to explain them the importance of ethics and the societal impact of quantum technologies in their own technical journal.

Making Quantum Technologies Ethical

Please find a short introduction below:

Over the past decades, research into quantum technologies has come to the stage where the science is rapidly being translated into real-world applications be it quantum computers, materials and communications systems. These advancements are witnessed by the considerable number of quantum start-ups that have emerged in recent years. Yet before these innovations can be diffused, we must ensure that ethical, legal and social implications are sufficiently addressed. Against this backdrop, attention is now turning to interdisciplinary efforts to identify the dilemma’s ingrained in making quantum technologies ethical.

A Multi-layered Ethical Framework for Quantum Technologies

The article proposes a multi-layered ethical framework for quantum technologies, including a definition of quantum ethics. At one level, we employ the old, familiar “normative” ethics that apply to all transformative technologies and to information. In addition, the counterintuitive phenomena that underpin quantum physics – such as superposition, entanglement and tunnelling – require a tailored, applied ethics approach. In other words, due to the unique characteristics of quantum technologies – such as the unprecedented capabilities of quantum sensors, the features of quantum networks, and the probabilistic nature of quantum computing – we also develop a new subtype of context-specific practical ethics. In this way we constitute our theory in well-established ethical traditions while at the same time providing tailor-made solutions.

Definition of Quantum Ethics

One possible definition of quantum ethics could be: “Quantum ethics calls for humans to act virtuously, abiding by the standards of ethical practice and conduct set by the quantum community, and to make sure these actions have desirable consequences, with the latter being higher in rank in case it conflicts with the former.”

More quantum research at Stanford Law School here.

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Quantum Technology, EthicsMauritz Kopquantum, ethics, law, policy, governance, regulation, IOP Publishing, Physics World, Full Text, Mauritz Kop, Stanford
Music Law at the Royal Conservatoire The Hague
Music Law at the Royal Conservatoire The Hague

Returning to my old flame for 1 day: looking forward to teaching music law at the Royal Conservatoire The Hague tomorrow! https://www.koncon.nl/en/

It's nice not having to speak or write about AI, data or quantum technology for a change... ;)

Teaching music law at the Royal Conservatoire The Hague

I am giving an in person guest lecture to a small group of students at the Amare - Den Haag, and it is live streamed to the rest of the department. The Amare is home to Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT) as well, one of the world’s leading contemporary dance & ballet companies, dedicated to creation, research, innovation and talent development. https://www.ndt.nl/en/

Using self-produced audio fragments and practical examples, we cover 18 music law topics ranging from registering intellectual property rights to strategic contract negotiations. The tracks I prepared are played from my Powerpoint into a phenomenal pair of Bowers & Wilkins monitors, the ultimate sound system. https://www.muziekenrecht.nl/blog/2017/6/music-licensing-in-the-netherlands-movies-games-legal-aspects

Looking back in nostalgia to the cross-disciplinary masterclasses I had the pleasure of teaching in recent years inter alia at Leiden University, Utrecht University and Conservatorium Maastricht. https://www.musicajuridica.nl/blog/2017/5/gastcollege-intellectueel-eigendom-conservatorium-maastricht

CPO Radboud University seminar at Het Concertgebouw Amsterdam

Absolute highlight was the postgraduate CPO Radboud University seminar at Het Concertgebouw Amsterdam on music & law, which included a public domain quiz musically framed by an ad hoc ensemble of Koninklijk Concertgebouworkest musicians featuring the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Maarten Feteris on piano and me (Mauritz Kop) on clarinet es/bes, performing bespoke Mozart, Beethoven and Bach arrangements. https://www.muziekenrecht.nl/blog/2018/cpo-seminar-muziek-recht-concertgebouw-amsterdam

Kudos to the KonCon management for making sure their talented students have firsthand access to vital information about the inner workings of the music & entertainment industry!

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Intellectual Property, Licenties, Muziekrecht, Naburige rechtenMauritz KopMusic, Law, Intellectual Property, Copyright, Art
Integrating Bespoke IP Regimes for Quantum Technology into National Security Policy
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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Intellectual Property, Quantum Technology, GeopoliticsHenry QuentirMauritz Kop, Intellectual Property, National Security, Quantum Technology, Quantum Governance, Geopolitics, Policy, Innovation, TTLF, TRIPS, Antitrust, Trade Secrets, Compulsory Licenses, Mark Brongersma, Dual Use, Public Domain
Mauritz Kop speaks at Center for Quantum Networks Conference
Mauritz Kop speaks at Center for Quantum Networks Conference

Mauritz Kop will be speaking about Legal & Ethical Guidelines for Quantum Technology on Saturday Nov. 20 at 9:15-10:15 a.m. Phoenix, Arizona time (GMT-7) as part of the Quantum Technologies, Law, and Public Policy: A Global Perspective Conference. This two-day online event is hosted by the National Science Foundation (NSF) sponsored Center for Quantum Networks at the University of Arizona, and the University of Denver Sturm College of Law. Speakers include a cross-disciplinary line-up of quantum & law scholars from UC Berkeley School of Law, University of Toronto Faculty of Law, the University of Arizona, Sabanci University, Loyola Law School, Lund University, and Stanford Law School.

Quantum Technologies, Law, and Public Policy: A Global Perspective

You can find the conference’s agenda and registration here: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/mauritzkop_quantum-technologies-law-and-public-policy-activity-6863066359228583936-peu9/

Besides explaining quantum physics and discussing regulation, the focus of our Quantum Technologies, Law, and Public Policy: A Global Perspective Conference lies also on developing countries and their challenge with the future of quantum technologies. This is arguably the first comprehensive conference on quantum technology and the law in the U.S..

The Quantum Internet

The Center for Quantum Networks (CQN) is taking on one of the great engineering challenges of the 21st century: to lay the technical and social foundations of the quantum internet. The Quantum Internet will surpass the capabilities of today’s internet because of the unique advantages of entanglement—a coordination of the quantum states of particles serving as computational bits that is not present in the realms of classical physics. https://cqn-erc.arizona.edu/

Legal & Ethical Guidelines for Quantum Technology

The main takeaways of my Legal & Ethical Guidelines for Quantum Technology presentation are:

1. The quantum community should establish a practical code of quantum ethics to make the application of quantum technologies equitable and safe.

2. The world needs a risk-based legal-ethical framework for quantum technologies that mitigates risks and maximizes opportunities, the burdens and gains of which should be equally distributed across members of society.

3. Since technology is never neutral, we should embed democratic values and human rights principles into the architecture and infrastructure of our quantum systems, of course without rendering them useless.

4. We should develop quantum technology impact assessments in the form of codes of conduct, best practices and moral guides that are implemented by inclusive, diverse multidisciplinary teams, and utilize these tools to raise quantum awareness and trust, promote ethical quantum by design, and even proactively ensure regulatory compliance and legal conformity, which includes standardization and certification.

After registering for the conference you will receive the Zoom link that gives access to the event.

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Quantum TechnologyMauritz Kopquantum, law, ethics, governance, policy
Quantum ELSPI: Ethical, Legal, Social and Policy Implications of Quantum Technology
Quantum ELSPI: Ethical, Legal, Social and Policy Implications of Quantum Technology

Call for Papers Quantum ELSPI

Delighted to announce that the Quantum ELSPI call for papers is now open! AIRecht Director & Stanford Law School TTLF Fellow Mauritz Kop has the honor to guest-edit a Topical Collection for Digital Society, a new journal edited by Luciano Floridi (Oxford Internet Institute). This project is a Stanford/Oxford collaboration that aims to explore uncharted territories of Ethical, Legal, Social and Policy Implications of Quantum Technology. Articles should be submitted before 15 February 2022 and will be double blind peer reviewed. Accepted articles will be published by Springer Nature.

You can find the Quantum ELSPI collection page here: https://link.springer.com/collections/eiebhdhagd.

Download the Springer Nature Quantum-ELSPI Call for Papers here: TC_Quantum ELSPI_Call for papers

ELSPI stratagems for quantum technology

Anticipating spectacular advancements in real-world quantum driven products and services, the time is ripe for governments, academia and the market to prepare regulatory and business strategies that balance their societal impact. This topical collection seeks to provide informed suggestions on how to maximize benefits and mitigate risks of applied quantum technology. It intends to deliver insights and actionable recommendations on how and when to address identified opportunities and challenges, which can then be refined into plausible, evidence-based policy decisions by stakeholders across the world.

Special edition of Digital Society

In this special edition of Digital Society, we aim for scholars to reflect on the multifaceted questions associated with Quantum ELSPI. In addition to learning from history and connecting quantum to other big picture trends, quantum should be treated as something completely unique and unprecedented. We especially welcome cross-disciplinary contributions that look beyond research silos and integrate law, economic theory, ethics, sociology, philosophy of science, quantum information science, and sustainable innovation policy, and that consider how to improve ELSPI stratagems for quantum technology. We encourage authors to be pioneers in this complex, and at times counterintuitive field.

Multifaceted questions associated with Quantum ELSPI

Questions and topics that could be addressed by contributions in the topical collection are not restricted to, but could include the following:

-Potential strategies for industries facing disruption such as the cybersecurity industry and financial institutions. What role could antitrust law, intellectual property, prizes, fines, funding, taxes, lifelong learning and labor mobility play while incentivizing innovation?

-How should dual use applications be managed? How do we balance freedom with control? What role could a Quantum Treaty play to make our world a safer place?

-The creation of a list of quantum-specific themes, goals, benefits and risks that need to be addressed by universal, overarching principles of responsible quantum design and application, including a definition of hi-risk quantum-systems.

-How can policy makers learn from history and adjacent fields - such as AI, biotechnology, nanotechnology, semiconductors and nuclear - when regulating exponential innovation and ensuring equal access to quantum computing, sensing and the quantum internet? How can winner take all effects and a quantum divide be prevented? To what extent does governing digitization driven by classical computing paradigms (binary digits) differ from governing quantum computing (qubits)?

-It is not inconceivable that the development and uptake of transnational quantum principles will run along the lines of democratic and authoritarian tech governance models. Against that background, how can we embed cultural norms, liberal values, democratic principles, human rights and fundamental freedoms in globally accepted interoperability standards?

-How can we implement ethically aligned design into our quantum systems architecture and infrastructure? How can quantum technology impact assessments help achieve these goals?

Guest-Editor Quantum ELSPI: Mauritz Kop (Stanford Law School, Stanford University)

Editor-in-Chief Digital Society: Luciano Floridi (Oxford Internet Institute, Oxford University)

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Ethics, Law of AI, University, Stanford, Quantum ELSPI, OxfordMauritz KopOxford Internet InstituteQuantum ELSPI, Ethics, Law, Sociology, philosophy of science, economic theory, quantum information science, sustainable innovation policy, Intellectual Property Law, Digital Society, Topical Collection, Luciano Floridi, Mauritz Kop, Oxford Internet Institute, Stanford Law School, Springer Nature, Oxford University, AI, biotechnology, nanotechnology, semiconductors, nuclear, quantum computing, quantum sensing, quantum networks, governance, regulation, Quantum Technology
EU Artificial Intelligence Act: The European Approach to AI
EU Artificial Intelligence Act: The European Approach to AI

Stanford - Vienna Transatlantic Technology Law Forum, Transatlantic Antitrust and IPR Developments, Stanford University, Issue No. 2/2021

New Stanford tech policy research: “EU Artificial Intelligence Act: The European Approach to AI”.

Download the article here: Kop_EU AI Act: The European Approach to AI

EU regulatory framework for AI

On 21 April 2021, the European Commission presented the Artificial Intelligence Act. This Stanford Law School contribution lists the main points of the proposed regulatory framework for AI.

The Act seeks to codify the high standards of the EU trustworthy AI paradigm, which requires AI to be legally, ethically and technically robust, while respecting democratic values, human rights and the rule of law. The draft regulation sets out core horizontal rules for the development, commodification and use of AI-driven products, services and systems within the territory of the EU, that apply to all industries.

Legal sandboxes fostering innovation

The EC aims to prevent the rules from stifling innovation and hindering the creation of a flourishing AI ecosystem in Europe. This is ensured by introducing various flexibilities, including the application of legal sandboxes that afford breathing room to AI developers.

Sophisticated ‘product safety regime’

The EU AI Act introduces a sophisticated ‘product safety framework’ constructed around a set of 4 risk categories. It imposes requirements for market entrance and certification of High-Risk AI Systems through a mandatory CE-marking procedure. To ensure equitable outcomes, this pre-market conformity regime also applies to machine learning training, testing and validation datasets.

Pyramid of criticality

The AI Act draft combines a risk-based approach based on the pyramid of criticality, with a modern, layered enforcement mechanism. This means, among other things, that a lighter legal regime applies to AI applications with a negligible risk, and that applications with an unacceptable risk are banned. Stricter regulations apply as risk increases.

Enforcement at both Union and Member State level

The draft regulation provides for the installation of a new enforcement body at Union level: the European Artificial Intelligence Board (EAIB). At Member State level, the EAIB will be flanked by national supervisors, similar to the GDPR’s oversight mechanism. Fines for violation of the rules can be up to 6% of global turnover, or 30 million euros for private entities.

CE-marking for High-Risk AI Systems

In line with my recommendations, Article 49 of the Act requires high-risk AI and data-driven systems, products and services to comply with EU benchmarks, including safety and compliance assessments. This is crucial because it requires AI infused products and services to meet the high technical, legal and ethical standards that reflect the core values of trustworthy AI. Only then will they receive a CE marking that allows them to enter the European markets. This pre-market conformity mechanism works in the same manner as the existing CE marking: as safety certification for products traded in the European Economic Area (EEA).

Trustworthy AI by Design: ex ante and life-cycle auditing

Responsible, trustworthy AI by design requires awareness from all parties involved, from the first line of code. Indispensable tools to facilitate this awareness process are AI impact and conformity assessments, best practices, technology roadmaps and codes of conduct. These tools are executed by inclusive, multidisciplinary teams, that use them to monitor, validate and benchmark AI systems. It will all come down to ex ante and life-cycle auditing.

The new European rules will forever change the way AI is formed. Pursuing trustworthy AI by design seems like a sensible strategy, wherever you are in the world.

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Artificial Intelligence, Artificiële Intelligentie, Certification, European Law, Europees recht, Kunstmatige Intelligentie, Machine Learning, Stanford, WetgevingMauritz KopStanford Law SchoolEU Artificial Intelligence Act, regulatory framework, Pyramid of criticality, pre-market conformity, CE-marking, Certification, Risk-based approach, High-Risk AI Systems, Impact Assessment, Trustworthy AI by Design, life-cycle auditing, Ethics and Responsible AI, Worldwide standards, Extraterritorial effect, Fourth Industrial Revolution, Data Act, GDPR, FFD, MDR, Awareness, Stanford - Vienna Transatlantic Technology Law Forum, Stanford University, European Commission, Product safety regime, Machine learning trainingdatasets, Democratic values, human rights, rule of law, legal sandboxes, innovation, flourishing AI-ecosystem, Legal Compliance
AI in Healthcare: Mauritz Kop Teaches Legal and Ethical Frameworks at the SmartHealth Masterclass
AI in Healthcare: Mauritz Kop Teaches Legal and Ethical Frameworks at the SmartHealth Masterclass

Medical AI earns trust only when its legal and ethical preconditions are designed in from the start. Mauritz Kop taught exactly that module at the SmartHealth masterclass Kunstmatige intelligentie in de zorg (October 29–30, 2020, Van der Valk Houten) — a two-day program for the healthcare professionals and innovators who buy, build and validate clinical AI in Dutch hospitals.

Law as a design input for clinical AI

Privacy, IP, liability and fundamental rights: the masterclass treated legal requirements not as after-the-fact paperwork but as design inputs for AI applications that touch patient data and patient safety. A diagnostic-support algorithm is never just a model — it is a GDPR processing operation, frequently a medical device under the MDR or IVDR, and a node in a liability chain that runs from developer through hospital to treating physician. Reading a product through all of those lenses before procurement was the working method of the module.

An interdisciplinary faculty

Clinicians and builders from Pacmed, Radboudumc, Attendi and Syntho taught alongside the legal module — grounding artificial intelligence governance in the daily reality of Dutch hospitals and health-tech startups, from intensive-care prediction models to synthetic data as a privacy-preserving alternative to raw patient records. Legal teaching that never touches a confusion matrix stays abstract; technical teaching that never touches the lawful-basis question ships unusable products. This program put both in one room.

From White Paper to binding law

The 2020 timing mattered: the European Commission's AI White Paper had just framed the risk-based approach, and healthcare AI was widely expected to land in the high-risk tier. The EU has since adopted the AI Act, whose high-risk obligations — risk management, data governance, human oversight, conformity assessment — now interlock with the MDR/IVDR regime, turning the masterclass's design-it-in message from policy signal into binding law on a phased timetable.

A continuing teaching line

From Maasstad Hospital to SmartHealth: educating the people who buy, build and use medical AI is a structural part of AIRecht's practice — see also the Artificial Intelligence Impact Assessment, the ex-ante review framework that anticipated exactly this compliance-by-design logic. The lesson travels beyond healthcare: a system whose legal preconditions are an afterthought meets its regulator at the worst possible moment, while a system that carries its compliance evidence by design meets the same regulator with the file already open. For anyone deciding on medical AI procurement today, that difference is the whole game.

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Healthcare, Artificial Intelligence, Kunstmatige IntelligentieHenry QuentirSmartHealth, masterclass, medical AI, health law, AI governance, education
De Wet op de Artificiële Intelligentie
De Wet op de Artificiële Intelligentie

Een bewerkte versie van deze bijdrage is gepubliceerd op platform VerderDenken.nl van het Centrum voor Postacademisch Juridisch Onderwijs (CPO) van de Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen. https://www.ru.nl/cpo/verderdenken/columns/wet-artificiele-intelligentie-belangrijkste-punten/

Nieuwe regels voor AI gedreven producten, diensten en systemen

Op 21 april 2021 presenteerde de Europese Commissie haar langverwachte Wet op de Artificiële Intelligentie (AI). Deze concept Verordening geeft regels voor de ontwikkeling, commodificatie en gebruik van AI gedreven producten, diensten en systemen binnen het territorium van de Europese Unie. Het was bemoedigend te zien dat het team van President Ursula von der Leyen een belangrijk aantal van onze strategische aanbevelingen op het gebied van de regulering van AI heeft overgenomen, danwel zelfstandig tot dezelfde conclusies is gekomen.

Doelstellingen wettelijk kader voor AI

De concept Verordening biedt horizontale overkoepelende kernregels voor kunstmatige intelligentie die op alle industrieën (verticals) van toepassing zijn. De wet beoogt de hoge maatstaven van het EU Trustworthy AI paradigma te codificeren, dat voorschrijft dat AI wettig, ethisch en technisch robuust dient te zijn en daartoe 7 vereisten hanteert.

De Wet op de Artificiële Intelligentie heeft de volgende 4 doelstellingen:

“1. ervoor zorgen dat AI-systemen die in de Unie in de handel worden gebracht en gebruikt, veilig zijn en de bestaande wetgeving inzake grondrechten en waarden van de Unie eerbiedigen;

2. rechtszekerheid garanderen om investeringen en innovatie in AI te vergemakkelijken;

3. het beheer en de doeltreffende handhaving van de bestaande wetgeving inzake grondrechten en veiligheidsvoorschriften die van toepassing zijn op AI-systemen, verbeteren;

4. de ontwikkeling van een eengemaakte markt voor wettige, veilige en betrouwbare AI-toepassingen vergemakkelijken en marktversnippering voorkomen.“

Risico gebaseerde aanpak kunstmatig intelligente applicaties

Om deze doelstellingen te realiseren combineert de concept Artificial Intelligence Act een risk-based approach op basis van de pyramid of criticality, met een modern, gelaagd handhavingsmechanisme. Dit houdt onder meer in dat er voor AI applicaties met een verwaarloosbaar risico een licht wettelijk regime geldt, en onacceptabel risico applicaties verboden worden. Tussen deze 2 uitersten gelden er naarmate het risico toeneemt strengere voorschriften. Deze variëren van vrijblijvende zelfregulerende soft law impact assessments met gedragscodes, tot zwaar, multidisciplinair extern geauditeerde compliance vereisten inzake kwaliteit, veiligheid en transparantie inclusief risicobeheer, monitoring, certificering, benchmarking, validatie, documentatieplicht en markttoezicht gedurende de levenscyclus van de toepassing.

Handhaving en governance

De definitie van hoog risico AI applicaties binnen de diverse industriële sectoren is nog niet in steen gehouwen. Een ondubbelzinnige risicotaxonomie zal bijdragen aan rechtszekerheid en biedt belanghebbenden een adequaat antwoord op vragen over aansprakelijkheid en verzekering. Om ruimte voor innovatie door SME’s waaronder tech-startups te waarborgen, worden er flexibele AI regulatory sandboxes geïntroduceerd en is er IP Action Plan opgesteld voor intellectueel eigendom. De concept Verordening voorziet tenslotte in de installatie van een nieuwe handhavende instantie op Unieniveau: het European Artificial Intelligence Board. De EAIB zal op lidstaatniveau worden geflankeerd door nationale toezichthouders.

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Artificiële Intelligentie, AVG / GDPR, Europees recht, Kunstmatige Intelligentie, Law of AI, Stanford, TTLF, UniversityMauritz KopAIRechtWet op de Artificiële Intelligentie, Europese Verordening AI, Wettelijk Kader, Risico gebaseerde aanpak, Pyramid of Criticality, Handhaving, Governance, Regulering, CE-markering, Trustworthy-AI by Design, Standaard, Norm, Values, Principes, Juridisch-Ethisch Raamwerk, Mauritz Kop, CPO, Radboud Universiteit, VerderDenken, NL AIC, Transatlantic Technology Law Forum, Europese AI Alliantie, Ursula Von Der Leyen, DGCONNECT, Europese Commissie, Stanford Law School
Mauritz Kop Presents Quantum: Waive or Pledge IP at IPSC 2021, Cardozo Law School
Mauritz Kop Presents Quantum: Waive or Pledge IP at IPSC 2021, Cardozo Law School

IPSC 2021 at Cardozo: on August 4, 2021, Mauritz Kop presented Quantum: Waive or Pledge IP at the Intellectual Property Scholars Conference, hosted online by Cardozo Law School — putting the intellectual-property architecture of quantum technology before the IP academy while the field's patent landscape was still forming.

A real policy dilemma in three words

Waive or pledge: if quantum computing's basic building blocks rest on decades of publicly funded research, should foundational exclusive rights be waived for defined categories — or kept but pledged, FRAND-style, against assertion? The presentation developed both instruments and their hybrids, from quantum-specific patent pledges to compulsory licensing and shorter, innovation-cycle-calibrated protection terms — an IP architecture for a technology whose patent landscape was consolidating faster than its governance.

Physics that unsettles doctrine

The no-cloning theorem forbids perfectly copying an arbitrary unknown quantum state — friction at the foundations for IP regimes predicated on the act of duplication. A law built around copying meets quantum states that cannot, even in principle, be copied; the legal-ethical groundwork for that collision is laid in Establishing a Legal-Ethical Framework for Quantum Technology.

From workshop draft to Berkeley Technology Law Journal

The critiqued draft matured into the Berkeley Technology Law Journal article mapping patents, trade secrets and copyright onto quantum hardware, algorithms and software — and arguing where bespoke instruments serve innovation better than one-size-fits-all exclusivity. The IPSC room's questions — incentives, successor liability, category definition — made the published version sturdier. That is what the works-in-progress format is for: short presentations, dense Q&A, no proceedings, everything in service of the draft.

Patent scholars meet information-law scholars

Cardozo's host program tilts the IPSC room toward information-law questions — data, platforms, access — so a waive-or-pledge proposal had to satisfy both the incentive logic of the patent scholars and the access logic of the information-law side. A proposal that survives both audiences is closer to policy-ready than one bred in either camp alone.

Arriving early, on purpose

In August 2021 quantum technology was still mostly a physics story in the legal academy. Presenting a worked-out IP architecture then put waive-or-pledge on the scholarly agenda while policy could still shape the landscape rather than litigate it afterward. The instrument-matching logic — pledge where the ecosystem polices itself, waive where concentration would gate basic science, keep compulsory licensing in reserve as the credible threat that keeps the voluntary instruments honest — has only gained relevance as the quantum patent landscape has consolidated since.

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Intellectual Property, Academics, ConferenceHenry QuentirIPSC, Cardozo Law, quantum computing, intellectual property, patent pledges