ALLAI’s Catelijne Muller and Virginia Dignum recently spoke at length with European Commission’s Vice-President Vera Jourova about AI.

They discussed the capabilities and limitations of AI, the European AI policy process and in particular the impact of AI on fundamental rights.

Defining AI for regulatory purposes and determining high risk AI

Catelijne and Virginia gave their views on how AI should (and should not) be defined for regulatory purposes so as not to over or under include AI applications and uses.

They explained their position on the two-factor approach, where AI would be considered high risk only when its use is high risk and happens in a high risk sector, explaining why this approach runs the risk of under including certain applications that do pose a risk. They also suggested a more favorable approach, i.e. to regulate based on the level of risk to people or society. Ycan read more on this in ALLAI’s feedback to the Commission’s Inception Impact Assessment on AI).

AI and human rights, democracy and the rule of law

They also discussed the broad impact of AI on human rights, democracy and the rule of law, as described in Catelijne’s report for the Council of Europe. This impact goes well beyond (data)privacy and non-discrimination and affects our freedom of expression, our right to demonstration and to organize for example.

Guardian angel

VP Jourova was very interested in this especially in her role as ‘guardian angel’ of European values.