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I går presenterade EU-kommissionen sitt »Proposal for a Regulation on a European approach for Artificial Intelligence«.

Som vi tidigare rapporterat – utifrån läckt material  – vill EU-kommissionen ha ett förbud mot användning av AI för övervakning. Detta gäller speciellt övervakning kopplad till kameraövervakning med ansiktsigenkänning i realtid. Dock är detta inget heltäckande förbud, utan innehåller ett antal undantag och brasklappar.

Nu börjar reaktionerna på förslaget droppa in. Sarah Chander, Senior Policy Lead on AI hos European Digital Rights (EDRi) säger:

»Whilst it is positive that the Commission acknowledges that some uses of AI are simply unacceptable and need to be prohibited, the draft law does not prohibit the full extent of unacceptable uses of AI and in particular all forms of biometric mass surveillance. This leaves a worrying gap for discriminatory and surveillance technologies used by governments and companies. The regulation allows too wide a scope for self-regulation by companies profiting from AI. People, not companies need to be the centre of this regulation.«

Lotte Houwing, från nederländska Bits of Freedom:

»Biometric mass surveillance reduces our bodies to walking barcodes with the intention of judging the links between our data, physical appearance and our intentions. We should protect this sensitive data because we only have one face, which we cannot swap or leave at home. Once we give up this data we will have lost all control.«

ZDNet rapporterar:

»For Nick Holliman, professor at Newcastle University’s school of computing, the vagueness of the EU’s new rules reflect a lack of understanding of a technology that takes on many different shapes. ”There are risks of harm from not regulating AI systems, especially in high-risk areas, but the nature of the field is such that regulations are being drafted onto a moving target,” Holliman tells ZDNet.

In practice, says Holliman, the regulation seems unworkable, or designed to be defined in detail through case law – and the very idea of having to worry about this type of overhead is likely to drive many businesses away.«

Ytterligare ett citat från samma källa:

»”The EU has wider issues to do with the tech ecosystem: it’s very bureaucratic, it’s hard to get funding, it’s a top-down mentality,” Wolfgang Fengler, lead economist in trade and competitiveness at the World Bank, tells ZDNet. ”The challenge is that these new rules can be seen as business-unfriendly – and I’m not talking for Google, but for small startups operating in the EU.”«

Den tjeckiske ledamoten av Euopaparlamentet, piratpartisten Marcel Kolaja säger:

»The Commission’s plan on AI still leaves some loopholes. Even though the Commission pretends that practices such as biometric identification are banned, in reality, wide exemptions still remain. But these practices could easily be exploited by governments and lead to mass surveillance. And that is unacceptable for us. We have to set clear rules for AI that will protect the freedom of our citizens and will not discriminate against anyone of them. Once the proposal comes to “our table” in the Parliament, I will work to bring the necessary adjustments to the regulation.«

Man kan även notera att förslaget belyser ett problem med hela EU:s beslutsprocess. Med en reglering för hela EU, införd uppifrån, riskerar man att skapa single points of failure. Vilket kan ställas i kontrast mot om olika länder utformar sin egen politik och med tiden lär sig av varandras erfarenheter.

Och det är lite som med EU:s Digital Services Act – man sätter upp ett stelt regelverk för något som ständigt genomgår en dynamisk förändring.

Resurser:
• EDRi: Artificial Intelligence and Fundamental Rights: Document Pool »