Ben Farrand

Thrilled to share my new short-form piece with the BISA ISET WG 🚀

My piece explores how AI governance needs to move past rigid, one-size-fits-all frameworks and embrace more adaptive, context-sensitive pathways.

Grateful to @mybisa.bsky.social and @benfarrand.bsky.social for this opportunity

Close-up of a glowing AI microchip embedded on a circuit board.

Out now! A fantastic new BISA International Studies and Emerging Technologies Working Group short-form article 🎉

'Beyond frameworks: Alternative pathways for AI governance in a fragmented world' by Alp Cenk Arslan, PhD 📚

Read here 👉 https://ow.ly/uzcN50X5sVi

Ben Farrand

What does the von der Leyen II Commission hold for EU digital sovereignty?- International Studies and Emerging Technologies Working Group (ISET) | BISA - International Studies and Emerging Technologies Working Group (ISET) Working Group

Last chance to sign up! ⏰
Sign up to join the new International Studies and Emerging Technologies WG convenors as they introduce themselves, give a short presentation and set the agenda for this year! 🎉

Register here 👉 buff.ly/4nl02IH

@benfarrand.bsky.social

True, a lot of it also depends on how ‘lawful access’ is defined. Some arguing it means ‘without breaching TPMs to access’. That would be my reading based on measure 1.2 of the copyright chapter of the general purpose AI Code of Practice

Is the issue that they think there could possibly be value chain liability, maybe?

Commission published a Code of Practice which is more detailed here: ec.europa.eu/newsroom/dae.... Seems to suggest they view it as falling within the TDM exception unless rights are specifically reserved.

From my reading of Article 53(1)(c), it’s for GEN AI providers that place the product on the market. AI providers are defined under Article 3 as those putting the product on the market, so arguably it wouldn’t apply to independent researchers. Just my reading though!

The UN Cybercrime Convention under Article 14 maybe? I think the US is likely to adopt it unless something changes (which wouldn’t surprise me).

What does the von der Leyen II Commission hold for EU digital sovereignty?- International Studies and Emerging Technologies Working Group (ISET) | BISA - International Studies and Emerging Technologies Working Group (ISET) Working Group

Make sure you sign up to join the new International Studies and Emerging Technologies WG convenors as they introduce themselves, give a short presentation and set the agenda for this year! 🎉

Register here 👉 buff.ly/qBpUNff

@benfarrand.bsky.social

Clean Industrial Deal… or Dirty Industrial Deal? The so-called #CID may sound green — but it’s not clean and definitely not climate-friendly. Born out of heavy polluter lobbying, it weakens rules and funnels public money to big industry, while ignoring real climate solutions.

New conveners and call for expressions of interest- International Studies and Emerging Technologies Working Group (ISET) | BISA - International Studies and Emerging Technologies Working Group (ISET) Working Group

@benfarrand.bsky.social & Dr Mike Bourne are the new International Studies and Emerging Technologies WG conveners! 🌟

They are calling for expressions of interest! Presenting work, writing small articles and discussing your work-in-progress 🎉

Find out more here 👉

Slightly diminish a band:

Jane’s Craving

a bald man is laying down with his head resting on his hand and a gif-finder.com logo in the lower right corner ALT: a bald man is laying down with his head resting on his hand and a gif-finder.com logo in the lower right corner

‘But how can we profit unless we turn games into services you have to pay monthly for?

‘I’m not owned, I’m not owned’ I continue to insist as I slowly shrink tariffs on corncobs.

You’re charging me $5 dollars for drinking the coffee I bought? No, you’re paying ME $5 dollars so I can drink that coffee. Also I’m charging you for that mug.

Oh absolutely, it’s just the EU wasn’t particularly vocal about it until maybe the past 10-12 years. Also, EU’s commitment to its own values is occasionally pretty shaky.

Yeah, you can see this in various ways during the 2nd Obama Administration, before a clearer divergence in values starts getting more explicit in 2016.

I think a bit like Fukuyama, Angell’s argument was somewhat misunderstood/misrepresented by critics immediately after WWI. Angell never said it couldn’t happen, only that it would be economically ruinous.

Well, quick and easy, sure, if you don’t mind cratering while you do it. It’s like the ‘cheap, fast, good, pick two’ dilemma, except instead of ‘good’ it’s ’no recession’. :D more seriously, in some respects both Brexit and this are motivated by the same perceived sense global injustice, ≠ reality

Meanwhile the US doesn’t really fit the model because it’s both engaging in what could be considered extreme mercantilist practice abroad but active trashing of the state internally, creating god knows what kind of aberration.

I think we’ll see multilateralism largely deprioritised as bilateralism and regionalism pick up apace, as each state/region tries to influence global trade, through strategic investment, incentives for preferentialism, and int orgs used predominantly to exert influence rather than cooperate

In some respects we’ll see a return to a quasi-mercantilist approach, where balance of trade is seen as important, state-and-industry building prioritised internally and exerting trade and regulatory power to control supply chains externally.

States and regions are going to become increasingly security-oriented and geostrategic. Regional relations will become more important, FDI will be viewed more suspiciously, and control over ‘natural’ resources whether minerals or data will be prioritised

But if globalisation is meant to equate with the liberal international economic order where commitments to ‘free and fair’ trade under auspices of international organisations are the aim, then we are seeing a paradigm change I think.

If you understand it as all tariffs all the time forever more, then no, it’s unlikely the current insanity is going to be permanent. If you think of globalisation = inter-connectedness, global supply chains etc, then no, it’s not dead, because these will always exist in some form.

Whether this is the ‘death of globalisation’ ultimately depends on how you understand globalisation. 🧵

Oops accidentally invited my arch nemesis to my Signal group chat. #OOPSEC

So, seems as good a time as any to announce it, if you’re interested in the EU’s digital sovereignty agenda and how it has shaped technology regulation, my book ‘Geopolitical Union: Europe’s Attempt to Regain Control of Technology Regulation’ is under contract with Cambridge University Press!