TRAIL and AI Singapore In Conversation with Professor Anu Bradford

On 13 September 2023, TRAIL and AI Singapore jointly hosted Professor Anu Bradford’s lunchtime talk on her new book titled Digital Empires: The Global Battle to Regulate Technology, published by Oxford University Press, at the NUS Kent Ridge Campus. Professor Bradford outlined the strengths and limitations of three regulatory models adopted by the United States, Europe and the People’s Republic of China, and framed the debate as a battle between techno-democracies and techno-autocracies.

In her book, Professor Bradford observed that the “group of techno-democracies is heterogeneous, and existing disagreements may impede any meaningful collaborations among them.” She pointed out that tech companies “suffer from a deep reputational and trust deficit with policymakers and the general public, making it difficult for them to take a combative stand against the regulators without triggering an even harsher backlash.”

Professor Anu Bradford with Professor Simon Chesterman and Professor David Tan

Professor Simon Chesterman shares his views on the continuing conflict of the different regulatory models

Professor David Tan commenting on the rise of the techno-plutocracies and overcoming the challenge of the First Amendment in the United States

Both Professor Simon Chesterman and Professor David Tan led a lively discussion that ranged setting of transnational data protection standards to the prospects of a dystopian future. Professor Simon Chesterman, Vice Provost (Educational Innovation) at the National University of Singapore, is also Senior Director of AI Governance at AI Singapore. Professor David Tan is the Co-Director of the Centre for Technology, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence & the Law at NUS Law, and has pioneered courses in Freedom of Speech and Entertainment Law there.

Anu Bradford is Henry L. Moses Professor of Law and International Organizations at Columbia Law School. She is also a director for Columbia’s European Legal Studies Center and a Senior Scholar at Jerome A. Chazen Institute for Global Business at Columbia Business School. Her research focuses on international trade law, European Union law, digital regulation, and comparative and international antitrust law. Bradford is the author of The Brussels Effect: How the European Union Rules the World (OUP 2020), which was named one of the Best Books of 2020 by Foreign Affairs.

The lunchtime talk kicks off in a cosy setting in the innovation 4.0 building

From left: Associate Professor Jungpil Hahn (AI Singapore/NUS School of Computing) and David Low (SNDGO)

Mr Kenneth Lim (AIA Singapore)

Ms Asha Hemrajani (NTU)

Associate Professor Han-Wei Liu (SMU Law)

Dr Karryl Kim Sagun Trajano (NTU)

Dr Chuanman You (CUHK Shenzhen)

Professor Anu Bradford with guests and staff of AI Singapore