On June 27th, a round table discussion titled "Regulating Metaverses: Utilizing Existing Tools or Developing New Ones?" was held, organized by the MGIMO AI Centre. The round table was moderated by the Director of the Centre and the Academic Supervisor of the "Artificial Intelligence" master's program at MGIMO, Anna Abramova.

During the session, experts discussed upcoming and current challenges in regulating metaverses. Topics also included perspectives on regulating metaverses at both international and national levels, and participants touched upon the creation of specific regulatory acts and metaverse registries.

"Today, neither proper corporate regulation nor governmental regulation exists. To start with, we should create something of our own, and then refer to international experience," stated Dmitry Gulyaev, the Director of the Center for Youth Rights in the Digital Space.
Ludmila Gontar, the Director of the Competence Center for Digitalization of Business Processes and a member of the Skolkovo Technopark's Working Group, shared approaches to legal regulation and highlighted the importance of considering the metaverse as a digital entity tied to assets.

Alexander Smirnov, an Associate Professor at the Institute of State and Law of the Russian Academy of Sciences, emphasized that the most similar subjects of legal regulation (analogues to metaverses) are computer games and social networks. However, since metaverses are a separate platform where full-fledged interaction occurs in a virtual world, "new legislation will undoubtedly be required."

If you are interested in receiving a full summary and key theses of the round table, you can contact them via email at aicentre@inno.mgimo.ru.