The Concept and Types of Synthetic Data: On the Issue of the Necessity of Legal Regulation in Russian Legislation

In 2022–2025, there was a breakthrough in artificial intelligence technologies regarding the development of its generative model. As a result of the application of this technology, the concept of “synthetic information (data)” became widespread, which essentially represents new information created without human involvement. Consequently, among foreign and domestic scholars, the question of the legal, ethical, philosophical, and technical issues surrounding the development of generative artificial intelligence and the circulation of synthetic information (data) has become urgent. Synthetic data as an element of legal relations has been little studied in the context of modern reality. The subject of this study is the understanding of the essence of synthetic data, its types, and the specifics of its generation. By applying a combination of general scientific (analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction), specific scientific (sociological, statistical), and special (formal‑legal, comparative legal, legal modeling) methods of cognition, the positions of foreign and domestic scientists, as well as the provisions of the legislation of the Russian Federation, concerning the subject matter discussed in the article, are examined. From the perspective of legal regulation, definitions of the concepts “synthetic data”, “synthetic image”, and the identifying features of synthetic data have been formulated, as well as their classifications and types have been distinguished. Based on the research results, it is proposed to amend the existing regulatory legal acts to establish the definition of “synthetic data”; the technological infrastructure for the use of synthetic data; the legal regime for the circulation of synthetic data; the filling of “data lakes” with synthetic data; the areas in which the use of synthetic data is permissible; the risks and threats associated with the use of synthetic data; and the restrictions and prohibitions on the application of synthetic data in certain areas of public administration.