AI regulation in Algeria (2026)

On 8 December 2024, Algeria's AI Council officially adopted the National AI Strategy, organised around six pillars: scientific research, talent development, infrastructure investment, ecosystem building, data protection/regulatory framework, and sectoral AI deployment in healthcare, agriculture, and energy. It is a strategic document, not binding legislation.

An AI Council, led by Professor Mérouane Debbah, was established to advise the government on cross-sectoral AI policy and strategy. The Council is the principal body coordinating Algeria's AI posture and was the body that formally announced the National AI Strategy.

Enacted on 24 July 2025, Law No. 25-11 amends the 2018 personal data protection Law No. 18-07 to address emerging technologies including AI, Big Data, and IoT. It introduces mandatory Data Protection Impact Assessments for high-risk processing, Data Protection Officer appointments, a 5-day breach notification obligation, and tighter cross-border data transfer restrictions. It is supervised by the ANPDP (National Data Protection Authority).

The National AI Strategy explicitly proposes developing a dedicated legal framework to govern AI and expanding the ANPDP's mandate to include AI oversight. As of May 2026, no standalone AI law has been tabled or enacted; the legal framework remains in its planning phase.

Algeria launched an approximately $11 million national AI and robotics fund to support startups. A national AI supercomputing centre with GPU clusters is under construction in Oran (announced March 2025), aimed at researchers, universities, and startups.

In March 2025, President Tebboune validated a National Information Systems Security Strategy for 2025–2029, developed by the Ministry of National Defence's ANSI agency. It is a parallel digital governance instrument reinforcing the AI strategy's cybersecurity pillar but does not constitute AI-specific regulation.