The Dominican government adopts a decree regulating public artificial intelligence

The Dominican Republic has enacted Decree 787-26 to establish a code of ethics governing the use of artificial intelligence in public services. The regulation imposes mandatory controls on all state institutions, centralized and centralized alike, to ensure that technology is adopted in a transparent, inclusive and secure way. According to El Nuevo Diario, the measure was driven by President Luis Abinader. The regulatory framework was drawn up by the Oficina Gubernamental de Tecnologías de la Información y Comunicación and the Dirección General de Ética e Integridad Gubernamental, with technical support from the Alianza para el Gobierno Abierto. The text follows UNESCO and OECD standards.

Bans and protection of citizens

The new text requires public bodies to carry out ethical and rights impact assessments before deploying automated systems considered high-risk, in particular those that affect access to social benefits or powers to impose penalties. Citizens gain the right to be told when an administrative decision relies on algorithms, as well as the right to request a human review and clear explanations.

The regulation bans social scoring, mass biometric identification in public spaces without a court order, predictive criminal profiling based on prejudice, the automation of punitive judgments, and autonomous weapons. Minors receive stronger protection, with tools that generate harmful or discriminatory content banned. Public entities must also guarantee sovereign control over data and rule out opaque technologies that cannot be audited.

Enforcement and regional projects

An advisory body called the Consejo Nacional de Ética de la Inteligencia Artificial brings together state entities and civil society members from the Foro Multiactor de Gobierno Abierto to oversee the implementation of these rules. Government agencies have 180 calendar days to adapt their internal procedures, register their systems and appoint officials to oversee them.

According to Metro Puerto Rico, a separate legislative initiative is under consideration in Puerto Rico to attract data centers while imposing strict energy requirements to protect the power grid.