Governance dell'AI e design giuridico dell'infosfera. Una terza via?

This paper explores the recent developments in Privacy and Data Protection in China implemented, in 2021, by the Personal Information Protection Law and the Ethical Norms for the New Generation Artificial Intelligence. It assesses their global relevance in light of the growing geopolitical role played by China, its increas- ing power in digital economy and in the crucial field of ICT and AI. From this perspective, the PIPL and the Ethical Norms - both laying in a complex regulative framework - can be seen as the Chinese contribution to a global effort: design the ethical and legal infrastructure of the infosphere. This article argues that those documents provide a new regulative model with “Chinese characteristics”. On the one hand, the model is profoundly rooted in Chinese culture and its own, unique history of thought. On the other hand, it addresses the development of the s.c. digital society in China with its basic needs: cybersecurity and safety of the digital person living and socializing in the infosphere. In light of the growing consciousness by Chinese society of the value of human personality and of the risks it faces because of the ICT, this paper explores the link between the new model of data protection and the regulation of personality rights provided by the new Civil Code by virtue of its stand-alone book.