The Commission is planning new laws on Artificial Intelligence, strengthening the rights of the GDPR amid recent high-profile scrutiny of facial recognition.
Background: The European Commission has worked extensively on a framework for Artificial Intelligence in the last two years, across several pillars. One of them relates to ensuring “An appropriate ethical and legal framework”, recognising that some AI applications may raise new ethical and legal questions, related to liability or fairness of decision-making. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a major step for building trust, but the EC wants to pass more detailed rules on AI-based applications.
The new plan: This week, the Financial Times disclosed a plan, which is yet to be officially adopted by the EC, aiming to help “foster public trust and acceptance” in facial recognition. The new rules would build on GDPR, and address specific risks brought about facial recognition technology. The plan comes at a time when the UK data protection authority, the ICO, has launched an investigation into the use of facial recognition, and the Swedish authority has fined a school SEK200k (€18.6k) for abusive use of the technology.
Next steps: The EC’s plan is yet to be disclosed officially. The new President of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, pledged to unveil legislation on AI within her first 100 days in office. The expert group on AI, set up by the EC in June 2018, will inform the future steps that will be taken.
