Giovanna Cinelli: Emerging technology debate comes of age

AI, quantum computing, brain-computer interfaces… it sounds like the stuff of a sci-fi novel. But the future is now!  When FIRRMA brought the emerging technology debate into mainstream compliance thinking in 2018, many relegated the issue to the back-burner – pending further consensus and clarification from government. Some of the technologies referenced seemed far-fetched and their threat potential distant; subsequent efforts to control emerging tech have met definitional and other challenges.

But as multiple agencies beyond CFIUS and BIS (including, for example, the National Institute of Standards and Technology) seek to better understand its applications and implications, the ‘emerging tech’ thematic is poised to become central to export control and related regulated tools – all against a backdrop of accelerated national security considerations around the technological capabilities of potential adversaries.

Taking a multijurisdictional approach, Giovanna Cinelli will address the state of play of emerging technologies and compliance, including the significance of recent consultations, prospects for rule-making, and will shed light on the underlying rationale driving policy development. 

About Giovanna: Giovanna Cinelli is the leader of the international trade and national security practice at the law firm Morgan Lewis. Concurrent with her private practice, Giovanna has served as a Naval Reserve intelligence officer, where she specialised in Soviet-era submarine platforms, national security, and intelligence issues.