The Ministry of Economy is preparing regulatory sandboxes for experiments with artificial intelligence
The Ministry of Economy has prepared a set of draft regulations for the implementation of amendments to the federal law on experimental legal regimes (ELR) in the field of digital innovation. Three of them were published this week, including a draft government resolution specifying the procedure for disqualifying participants from experiments in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) if they cause damage to life and property. In total, 16 ELRs are in effect in the Russian Federation, 13 of which are for drones, and the Ministry of Economy is working on eight more applications, including for taxis and car sharing. The mechanism is generally in demand by businesses, but requires increased participation of the business community in the development, according to the ANO Digital Economy.
The Ministry of Economy has prepared three draft government resolutions aimed at implementing amendments to the federal law on the EPR in the field of digital innovation (169-FZ) — they will come into effect on January 5, 2025. The EPR, or "regulatory sandboxes", is a mechanism that allows for "local" changes to legal regulation in certain territories for the sake of introducing new technologies that do not fit into existing standards. Of the documents from the Ministry of Economy, the first changes the rules for making changes to the EPR — they can be prepared by an authorized body or regulator on its own initiative, on the instructions of the president or government, as well as based on proposals from companies (the review period is ten calendar days). The second draft optimizes EPR reporting and details the procedure for preparing a proposal to amend general regulation. The third gives the Ministry of Economy an additional basis for suspending the status of an EPR subject — based on the conclusion of the department's commission created to establish the circumstances under which harm was caused as a result of the use of solutions using artificial intelligence.
According to the Ministry of Economy, 16 experimental legal regimes are currently being implemented in the Russian Federation, with more than 190 companies operating in them. Nine EPRs are aimed at testing unmanned aircraft systems, four are aimed at testing ground drones, and one each provides for experiments by companies in the field of telemedicine technologies, personal medical assistants, and the provision of public services. The department is also working on eight new EPR applications, including projects for counteracting drones, AI in healthcare, and car sharing.
"The EPR should be viewed primarily as an opportunity for comprehensive testing of technologies and legal mechanisms. At the same time, each experiment is carried out under state control over the safety of the technology," the office of the Deputy Prime Minister and Chief of Staff of the White House Dmitry Grigorenko, responsible for digitalization, notes. Amendments to the law will significantly simplify access to the EPR for businesses and make experimental modes even more attractive for testing the latest technologies in real life, they add.
Pinpoint amendments to the regulation of innovation testing regimes were required based on the results of their work to speed up the launch of new programs, as well as to clarify the procedure for testing artificial intelligence technologies, Vladimir Voloshin, head of the digital development department of the Ministry of Economy, noted earlier. In total, the ministry is working on 11 by-laws in the field of EPR, Kommersant was told in the Ministry of Economy (the practice of establishing them began in March 2022), some of them are also necessary for the implementation of innovations in the field of AI. It should be noted that the Ministry of Economy planned to launch EPR in the field of telemedicine, cargo transportation using drones, passenger transportation by unmanned taxis, business analytics based on big data and medical research on the effectiveness of drugs by the end of 2022. According to a Kommersant source familiar with the development of EPR, there is no pattern in the fact that most of them are now drones, while, for example, aviation is a very sensitive area where it is possible and necessary to test a hypothesis for further implementation in the most controlled environment.
"In general, the EPR toolkit is in demand by businesses," admits Dmitry Nemchinov, Director of the Regulatory Framework at the Digital Economy ANO. At the same time, according to him, companies are increasingly clearly requesting that proposals from companies be taken into account. "First of all, the role of the business community in considering and establishing the EPR is decreasing. Currently, the business position is not mandatory for consideration by the relevant federal executive authorities, which can give rise to conflict situations in the market and, in the long term, complicate the development of systemic solutions for the implementation of new standards. Business also notes the closed nature of the work of government bodies on EPR projects," he says.
