Timeline of AI policy

This is a timeline of AI policy and legislation, which attempts to overview the changes in international and local laws around AI and AI safety.

Full timeline

Year	Month and date	Region	Name	Event type	Details
2018	000000002024-05-05-0000May 5	European Union	GDPR	International Policy	The European Union effects the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the strongest and most comprehensive attempt yet to regulate personal data. The GDPR outlines a set of rules that aims to strengthen protection for personal data in response to increasing development in the tech world. Although the GDPR is focused on privacy, it states that individuals have the right to a human review of results from automated decision-making systems. The fine for violating the GDPR is high and extends to any organization that offers services to EU citizens.
2018	000000002024-06-28-0000June 28	United States	California Consumer Privacy Act	State Policy	The California Consumer Privacy Act is signed into law, heightening consumer control over personal information. The law would go into effect January 1, 2020 and grants consumers the right to know about, opt out of the sharing of, and delete personal information. The Act would influence personal data usage by giving consumers the right to opt out of automated decision-making systems and by compelling businesses to inform customers on how and for what purpose they use personal information. These regulations would require businesses to disclose if and how they use personal information for AI training.
2019	000000002024-02-11-0000February 11	United States	Executive Order 13859	National Policy	President Trump signs Executive Order 13859 to maintain American Leadership in Artificial Intelligence. The Order directs federal agencies to prioritize AI research and develop and prompt American leadership in the AI space. The Order does not provide details on how it plans to put the new policies in effect, and does not allocate any federal funding towards executing its vision.
2019	000000002024-04-10-0000April 10	United States	Algorithmic Accountability Act	National Policy	The Algorithmic Accountability Act bill is introduced into the house. Commercial entities must “conduct assessments of high-risk systems that involve personal information or make automated decisions, such as systems that use artificial intelligence or machine learning.” The Bill aims to minimize bias, discrimination, and inaccuracy in automated decision systems by compelling companies to assess their impacts. The Act does not establish binding regulations but asks the Federal Trade Commission to establish rules for evaluating highly sensitive automated systems. The legislation would be introduced into the senate in 2022 but would still not be law through 2024.
2020	000000002024-10-10-0000October 10	Europe	Artificial Intelligence Act	International Policy	European Union leaders meet to discuss the digital transition. They invite the European Commission, the executive branch of the EU, to increase private and public tech investment, ensure elevated coordination between European research centers, and construct a clear definition of Artificial Intelligence.
2021	000000002024-04-21-0000April 21	Europe	Artificial Intelligence Act	International Policy	The European Commission proposes the Artificial Intelligence Act. The Commission releases a proposal for AI regulation aiming to improve trust in AI and foster its development.
2023	000000002024-10-30-0000October 30	United States	Executive Order 14110	National Policy	Biden signs Executive Order 14110 titled Executive Order on Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence. The Order establishes new standards for AI safety and security. It compels developers to share test results with the US government and create tools to ensure AI system safety, protects Americans from AI fraud and deception, sets up a cybersecurity program to develop AI tools and fix vulnerabilities, and orders the development of a national security memorandum that directs future AI security measures. The Order also directs the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to develop standards for evaluation and red-teaming and to provide testing environments for AI systems. The general reaction to the bill is cautious optimism. As Less Wrong blogger Zvi Mowshowitz reports, some worry that this is the first step in a slippery slope of heightened regulation that could dampen innovation and development. A complete timeline and outlook of the Executive Order can be found here.
2023	000000002024-11-01-0000November 1 – 2	International Conference	AI Safety Summit	International Policy	The first AI Safety Summit is held at Bletchley Park, Milton Keynes in the United Kingdom. It leads to an agreement known as the Bletchley Declaration by the 28 countries participating in the summit, including the United States, United Kingdom, China, and the European Union. It receives some commentary on LessWrong, viewing it as a partial step in the right direction, including a lengthy blog post by Zvi Mowshowitz, a frequent commentator on AI developments from an AI safety lens.
2023	000000002024-11-01-0000November 1	United States	US AI Safety Institute	Organization	United States Vice President Kamala Harris announces the U.S. AI Safety Institute (USAISI) at the AI Safety Summit in the United Kingdom. The launch of USAISI builds on Biden's executive order of two days ago (October 30).
2023	000000002024-11-02-0000November 2	United Kingdom	UK AI Safety Institute	Organization	The United Kingdom government announces the launch of the UK AI Safety Institute. The UK AI Safety Institute is to be formed from the Frontier AI Taskforce, which in turn had previously been called the Foundation Model Taskforce. Ian Hogarth serves as its chair.
2023	000000002024-12-09-0000December 9	Europe	Artificial Intelligence Act	International Policy	The European Council and European Parliment reach a provisional agreement on the Artificial Intelligence Act. The Act should go into effect in 2026.
2024	000000002024-02-08-0000February 8	United States	Artificial Intelligence Act	Organization	U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo announces "the creation of the U.S. AI Safety Institute Consortium (AISIC), which will unite AI creators and users, academics, government and industry researchers, and civil society organizations in support of the development and deployment of safe and trustworthy artificial intelligence (AI)." AISIC is to be housed under the U.S. AI Safety Institute, and includes over 200 member organizations. The member organizations were recruited through a notice published the Federal Register asking interested organizations to submit a letter of interest over a period of 75 days (between November 2, 2023, and January 15, 2024).
2024	000000002024-03-07-0000March 7 (anticipation), 000000002024-04-16-0000April 16 (official announcement)	United States	US AI Safety Institute	Organization	U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo announces additional members of the executive leadership of the U.S. AI Safety Institute (AISI); one of these is Paul Christiano as head of AI safety. A month prior, when there was anticipation of this appointment VentureBeat had reported dissatisfaction with the idea of appointing Christiano, from "employees who fear that Christiano’s association with EA and longtermism could compromise the institute’s objectivity and integrity."
2024	000000002024-05-21-0000May 21	Europe	Artificial Intelligence Act	International Policy	The European Council approves the Artificial Intelligence Act. This Act is the first of its kind and operates within a risk-based approach - the higher the risk to society, the stricter the rules.

See also

• Timeline of AI safety
• Timeline of machine learning
• Timeline of ChatGPT
• Timeline of Google Gemini
• Timeline of OpenAI
• Timeline of large language models