The first Dutch Digital Day took place on March 21st. The overarching theme of the day was Artificial Intelligence and ALLAI was invited to take the stage at the opening plenary session.

EU Commissioner Mariya Gabriel thanks ALLAI

In a video message EU Commissioner for the Digital Society Mariya Gabriel welcomed all participants and explained the EU Strategy on AI. She personally thanked Catelijne Muller, Aimee van Wynsberghe and Virginia Dignum for their active participation in the High Level Expert Group on AI, their launch of ALLAI and their roles as being ‘women in tech’, which is a theme that is close to her heart.

After these warm words, ALLAI’s Catelijne Muller and Aimee van Wynsberghe were interviewed by the moderator on the mission and vision of ALLAI, what Responsible AI actually entails and the Ethics Guidelines on Trustworthy AI and the upcoming work of the EU High Level Expert Group on AI.

Responsible AI: about cars and seat belts

When asked the question that in the past people were also afraid of cars, but those eventually came, Aimee explained ethics in AI is not about developing AI or not, but about developing (and using) AI in a way that it respects our ethical principles: “When cars were invented, they did not have any seat belts in them, but we figured out along the way that it would be safer to have seat belts in cars.”

Beyond ethics

Catelijne explained that Responsible AI is more than ethics: “AI has a great number of legal and societal implications as well. Which laws apply to AI, and are they fit for purpose? Do we need new regulation? How do we make sure that AI applications land well in the workplace, so that people retain autonomy and pleasure in their work? How does AI affect our democracy, think of Cambridge Analytica.”

High Level Expert Group on AI

The Ethics Guidelines on Trustworthy AI will be presented during the EU Digital Day on April 8. The High Level Expert Group on AI will continue working on deliverable 2, which is Investment and Policy Recommendations on AI.