Governing the algorithm: a data scientist's guide to legal, ethical, and regulatory challenges in AI

“Governing the Algorithm: A Data Scientist’s Guide to Legal, Ethical, and Regulatory Challenges in AI” was the first mentorship session of the semester. It took place online on Saturday, February 15, 2025 at 10:00 AM, over Zoom and livestreamed on the UP Data Science Society Facebook page.

The session was an overview of the problems that come up when AI systems are built and deployed at scale: bias and fairness, intellectual property, data privacy, explainability, accountability, and labor rights. It also covered the technical approaches meant to keep AI development in line with existing and emerging regulation.

Atty. Rabelais Medina introduced the laws and frameworks that matter most for practitioners, including the Philippine Data Privacy Act, the EU AI Act, regulatory efforts in the United States, and China’s Interim Rules on Generative AI. The goal was a working understanding of the regulatory and ethical landscape rather than legal depth, aimed at AI and data science professionals and students.

Speaker

Atty. Rabelais Medina is a lawyer, a Master of Engineering in AI student, and a data privacy professional. With a background in both computer science and law from UP, he has worked in legal and regulatory technology in roles spanning software development, compliance, and governance. He leads Privacy and AI Tech Standards at a fintech company in the Philippines and is a Certified AI Governance Professional (AIGP). His recent paper on machine learning in legal research was presented at an international conference on AI.