Dr. Joshua Ellul, Chairman of Malta Digital Innovation Authority; Expert Evaluator at European Commission; Director of Centre for DLT at University of Malta, has shared a preprint for a paper that his team plans to present in June 2021 on a “pragmatic” approach to the regulation of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Dr. Ellul noted:
“I guess this is timely given the EU AI draft regulation being leaked which I’ve heard needs some serious fixes. It’s vital that AI regulation does not stifle innovation, and also that it’s applied in a suitable manner. I’ll comment on it in future, but here’s our paper for now.”
The abstract of the paper, titled A Pragmatic Approach to Regulating Artificial Intelligence: A Technology Regulator’s Perspective, states that AI and the regulation thereof is “a topic that is increasingly being discussed within various fora.”
The paper’s abstract adds that different proposals have been made in literature “for defining regulatory bodies and/or related regulation.” The abstract explains that the paper offers a pragmatic approach for “providing a technology assurance regulatory framework.”
Dr. Ellul and other researchers added:
‘To the best knowledge of the authors this work presents the first national AI technology assurance legal and regulatory framework that has been implemented by a national authority empowered through law to do so. In aim of both providing assurances where required and not stifling innovation yet supporting it, herein it is proposed that such regulation should not be mandated for all AI-based systems and that rather it should primarily provide a voluntary framework and only be mandated in sectors and activities where required and as deemed necessary by other authorities for regulated and critical areas.”
In an interview with Crowdfund Insider in February 2021, Dr. Ellul discussed how blockchain-based smart contracts are streamlining routine business processes.
He also talked about his research interests which include AI and Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices. Dr. Ellul provided key insights on the $1.5 billion Bitcoin (BTC) purchase by Tesla as well.