Alexandra Lorch // Regulating innovation in data-trained AI systems

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Research Associate

Name

Alexandra Lorch

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Contact Information

Organization Name

Schaufler Kolleg@TU Dresden

Schaufler Kolleg@TU Dresden

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Visiting address:

Z21, Room 302 Zellescher Weg 21

01217 Dresden

Rooms 302, 302A, 302B, 010

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TUD Dresden University of Technology Schaufler Kolleg@TU Dresden

01062 Dresden

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Doctoral project

Working title: Regulating innovation in data-trained AI systems

Subject area: Legal studies
Supervisor: JProf. Dr. Katharina Kaesling, LL.M., Prof. Dr. Lars Hornuf

Abstract

Data is collected, stored, processed, and disseminated at unprecedented scale. Once considered a mere "given", data has become a strategic asset requiring sophisticated regulatory intervention. The European Commission's Data Strategy emphasizes that access to and use of data are crucial for innovation and growth, yet balancing openness with protection remains a central challenge.

This legal-economic dissertation examines how European legislators regulate data flows for training AI systems, focusing on whether the EU legal framework sufficiently promotes data-driven AI innovation. To this end, the thesis analyses how instruments, including the AI Act, the Data Act, the Data Governance Act (DGA), the Digital Markets Act (DMA), provisions on text and data mining, and the GDPR, create incentives for innovation while balancing openness, risk, data protection, and competition. To ensure regulatory flexibility without undermining fundamental rights, I propose an instrument that prioritises innovation in the design of regulations on a case-by-case basis and examines the inclusion of global best practices.The project therefore ideally fits into the theme of the Schaufler Kolleg@TU Dresden by examining the socio-technological interaction of “Worlds↔Law↔Data.”

Curriculum Vitae

Academic Experience 

• "Economic Concepts of Innovation from a Legal Perspective", interdisciplinary impulse in the "Creativity and Innovation in IP Law" seminar as pasrt of the LL.M in Intellectual Property Law and Data Law, Technical University of Dresden, January 24, 2026.
• "AI Regulation and other legal frameworks of EU Digital Law", lecture units delivered within the Master’s Programme "Digital Humanities", Technical University of Dresden, summer semester 2025.
• "Legal issues of AI and data regulation and innvoation", presentation as part of the Digital Law Research Colloquium Geneva, organized by the Digital Law Center Faculty of Law, University of Geneva, Fondation Hardt, June 18, 2025.
• "AI sandboxes according to the European AI Regulation", presentation as part of the doctoral workshop on the DSA of the IRDT (Institute for Law and Digitalization), November 29, Trier, 2024.
• "Women in Legal Tech and AI Speed Dating", speaker in the Event of Clifford Chance and eLegal, Frankfurt, September 10, 2024.
• "Innovation and EU Regulation: The Role of the EU Legislator in data-driven Value Creation", Poster Presentation at the International Joint Conference "Perspectives from In- and Outside the New EU Patent System", Charles University Prague / Technical University of Dresden, Dresden, June 19, 2024.

Publications

• "International Women's Day: Automated Discrimination Against Women" (German), guest article with Dr Saskia Ostendorff, Dr Chiara Streitbörger and Jacqueline Sittig, in: Legal Tribune Online, 7 March 2026 (accessed on: 9 March 2026).
• "Is the data revolution starting in Europe? A European Legal Framework for AI Training Data" (German), CTRL Magazine, 02/2024, 8. Edition, p. 7-16 (October 2024)

Other

She is a member of the Commission "Law of the Digital Society" at the German Women Lawyers Association (djb) (2025–2027) and in the editorial team of the LegalTech Blog.