AI Governance

The European Data Protection Board and the European Data Protection Supervisor responded to the European Commission’s proposed “Digital Omnibus on AI,” a package designed to simplify aspects of the implementation of the AI Act. The goal, according to the Commission, is to make the rules easier to apply in practice. The message from Europe’s privacy watchdogs is that simplification is welcome but only up to a point.

Managing risks across the AI/ML lifecycle is critical for building reliable, secure, and ethical models. From data collection and labeling to training, fine-tuning, and evaluation, each stage presents unique challenges that can affect performance, reproducibility, fairness, and safety. Implementing well-defined controls ensures models are trustworthy, auditable, and resilient to both technical and operational issues. 

Italy’s competition watchdog has ordered Meta to immediately suspend new WhatsApp business terms after concluding that they risk unlawfully excluding competing AI chatbot services from one of the world’s most widely used messaging platforms.

The Federal Trade Commission has moved to reopen and set aside a 2024 final consent order against AI writing company Rytr, concluding that the original enforcement action failed to meet the legal standards of the FTC Act and imposed unnecessary constraints on artificial intelligence innovation.

‍On December 22, Kathy Hochul signed the Responsible AI Safety and Evaluation Act, or RAISE Act, setting what state leaders describe as a nation-leading standard for transparency and accountability among developers of so-called frontier AI models. The legislation requires large AI developers to publicly document their safety practices and to notify the state within 72 hours when serious harm linked to their systems is identified.

The Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC) recently unveiled its policy directions for 2026, laying out a sweeping plan to move Korea’s privacy regime away from after-the-fact penalties and toward a more preventive, risk-based approach designed for an AI-embedded society. The roadmap was presented on December 2 at the Sejong Convention Center during a joint reporting session with the Ministry of Science and ICT, the Korea Aerospace Administration, and the Korea Media and Communications Commission.

Artificial intelligence is moving from novelty to infrastructure at a pace that is increasingly difficult for regulators to ignore. According to a new industry snapshot from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, AI is rapidly becoming embedded across products, platforms, and services in ways that could reshape competition, consumer trust, and market dynamics. While the ACCC acknowledges the growing benefits AI is delivering to businesses and consumers, it warns that the pace and scale of adoption are outstripping existing oversight frameworks, strengthening the case for continuous regulatory monitoring.