EU AI Act Intensifies Trade Secret Transparency Tensions

The rapid expansion of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies is driving significant legal, economic, and social developments. AI developers increasingly rely on trade secrets rather than patents to protect their innovations, but the EU AI Act's transparency requirements pose challenges to maintaining confidentiality essential for competitive advantage. Despite concerns from some political perspectives that AI data centers contribute to rising electricity prices and could lead to mass unemployment, evidence shows that electricity cost increases are not primarily driven by data centers, with some regions even experiencing price decreases despite higher demand. Users are cautioned about sharing sensitive or confidential data with AI systems, as interactions with AI assistants can inadvertently expose personal or trade secret information. Meanwhile, the growth of hyperscale data centers for AI has led to controversial practices such as demanding non-disclosure agreements from land sellers and local officials, causing community unease about transparency and future developments. Additionally, new AI-powered cybersecurity partnerships, such as between VAST Data Federal, Leidos, and NVIDIA, are aiming to improve defense capabilities by leveraging AI to handle the massive volume of security data more efficiently and reduce analyst workload.