Dr. Marco Fagnano, Legal Counsel and AI Regulatory Manager at the Office of the Information and Data Protection Commissioner (IDPC), was recently invited by the Malta Digital Innovation Authority (MDIA) to participate in two panels to contribute on the implementation of the EU Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act) and its convergence with the EU GDPR.

The key message by Dr. Fagnano echoed the close relationship between the EU AI Act and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), emphasising that strong data protection safeguards provide an important foundation for trustworthy, accountable and compliant AI systems.

Addressing public sector stakeholders during the first session - The EU AI Act & Public Administration - he explored the evolving regulatory landscape governing high-risk AI systems and explained how privacy and data protection by design and by default can support compliance with AI regulatory requirements. He also highlighted the importance of an ethics-by-design approach in fostering responsible and human-centric AI governance.

In the healthcare-focused session -  AI in MedTech: Preparing for the EU AI Act - Dr. Fagnano examined the use of health data in AI-powered medical technologies, expressing concern and the challenges of reconciling the doctor-patient relationship with the safeguards surrounding automated decision-making under Article 22 of the GDPR. Incidentally he highlighted the growing interest in privacy-preserving data sanitisation techniques to achieve anonymisation, as a means of enabling AI innovation while protecting patients' fundamental rights.

Dr. Fagnano noted that, if proven effective from both a privacy-compliance and medical accuracy perspective, such techniques could play an important role in supporting the responsible development and deployment of AI-powered medical technologies.

Through practical legal, regulatory and technical insights, Dr. Fagnano contributed to engaging discussions on how organisations can embed data protection principles from the outset to support regulatory compliance, responsible AI governance and ethical AI innovation.