GeoAI and the Law Newsletter
Keeping geospatial professionals informed on the legal and policy issues that will impact GeoAI.
Recent Developments
The following is a recap of some of the most recent developments since the newsletter was last published.
Increased Efforts to Regulate AI at the State Level – As noted in this AI State Law Tracker from the International Association of Privacy Professionals, we are seeing efforts across the United State to regulate AI. By some counts, there are approximately 900 AI-related bills proposed. As is the case with data protection/privacy, a patchwork of state laws with different requirements makes it complicated —and expensive —for technology companies. Not surprisingly, in responding to a request for comments on a proposed AI national regulatory framework some technology companies are now calling for federal AI legislation that would supersede state laws.
Trump Administration Issues Executive Order on AI – On January 23, 2025, President Donald Trump signed Executive Order 14179, titled "Removing Barriers to American Leadership in Artificial Intelligence." The stated goal of the directive is to bolster the United States' position in AI innovation. It rescinds prior AI-related directives considered to hinder innovation and mandates the creation of a working group to create a comprehensive plan to enhance U.S. leadership in AI. Federal agencies are instructed to assess and revise current policies to align with these objectives.
U.S. Copyright Office Issues Report on Copyrightability of AI - In January 2025, the U.S. Copyright Office released Part 2 of its report addressing the copyrightability of works generated using AI. The report stated that outputs of generative AI can be protected by copyright but reaffirmed that copyright protection necessitates human creativity. Consequently, outputs solely produced by AI are not eligible for copyright protection without meaningful human involvement, nor does simply prompting an AI system provide the requisite human creativity.
EU AI Act Comes Into Effect. On February 2, 2025, the first requirements of the EU AI Act, which was passed on August 1, 2024, came into effect. These requirements included a ban on certain AI systems deemed to pose unacceptable risks, such as those used for social scoring or untargeted scraping of the internet for facial recognition databases, and requirements for AI literacy among staff of organizations that use AI.
Intersection of AI and Data Protection. On February 7, 2025, the French Data Protection Authority (CNIL) released new recommendations to promote responsible innovation in AI while ensuring compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). CNIL’s recommendations followed an opinion from the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) published in December 2024 on the use of personal data in the development of AI models. The CNIL report noted that when personal data is used to train AI models, individuals must be informed. CNIL also reaffirmed that individual rights under the GDPR, such as access, rectification, objection, and deletion of their personal data, apply when the personal data is included in an AI system.
In the Premium Newsletter
In this week’s premium addition, we will explore a topic that does not get much attention in the general discussion about AI but will impact many organizations: contract law.