Mendoza and Río Negro move ahead on AI

Mendoza and Río Negro are moving ahead with bills tied to cybersecurity, personal data and artificial intelligence in the provincial public sector. In Mendoza, lawmakers are debating a cybersecurity law and a cybercrime proposal focused on data protection. In Río Negro, a bill has been introduced to regulate the responsible use of AI in government.

What is being debated in Mendoza?

Two provincial bills are moving in parallel in Mendoza: a Cybersecurity Law backed by the executive branch, with input from Security Minister Mercedes Rus, according to Los Andes, and a separate proposal from Fuerza Patria lawmakers on personal data protection in the provincial and municipal public sectors.

The bill was presented in the Mendoza Legislature by deputies Lucas Ilardo and Lidia Quintana, along with Senator Félix González, during a press conference. It would require each state agency to appoint, within 180 days of the law taking effect, a professional responsible for data protection.

The proposal also says that if state agencies suffer a data breach, leak or hack, the government must report the incident within 72 hours and immediately notify affected citizens. It also sets aside 50% of fines for data protection violations for a Repair Fund that would finance free legal assistance and digital education programs for the public.

What does the Río Negro bill regulate?

A bill entered the Río Negro Legislature that would create a regulatory framework for the responsible use of artificial intelligence in the provincial public sector.

The initiative, promoted by lawmaker Martina Lacour and supported by Patricia Mc Kidd, Gabriela Picotti, Santiago Ibarrolaza and Claudio Doctorovich, classifies AI systems by risk level, minimal, limited, high and unacceptable.

For high-risk systems, the bill calls for a prior Algorithmic Impact Assessment and independent technical audits every two years. It also explicitly bans social scoring, indiscriminate mass surveillance, facial recognition based on mass scraping of social media photos, and sanctioning decisions based solely on predictive analysis.

The proposal also creates a public, free Provincial Registry of Artificial Intelligence Systems so people can see which agencies use AI, for what purpose, what data they process and how much human oversight they have. AI systems already in use in the public sector would have 180 days to register and up to 365 days to meet the new impact and security requirements once the law is approved.