What AI laws are there in the South African context? And what direction should we be taking as a country?

South Africa doesn’t have any AI-specific laws in place. We recommend relying on existing legislation such as POPIA and the principles of the Constitution in the development and deployment of AI. South Africa is not unique in not having AI-specific legislation.

We anticipate that there will be significant regulatory developments once the EU AI Act is passed and comes into effect. The EU AI Act will automatically apply to all member states. This will see member states take action to enforce the EU AI Act over the next two years as the Act comes into full effect.

This will impact how organisations in different regions operate and engage with one another. The common threads in global AI regulation are ethical usage and bias mitigation, privacy and data protection, and safety and reliability.