After a first remote plenary session, the European Parliament is preparing to hold a number of parliamentary committee meetings in the same format on Thursday 2 April, including the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee (IMCO), which will examine a draft opinion on education and artificial intelligence.
This opinion is intended to feed into the work of the 'Culture' Committee (CULT), which is responsible for the substance of the report, which is due to vote on a non-legislative own-initiative report in the summer. More specifically, the subject it addresses is 'Artificial intelligence in the education, culture and audiovisual fields'.
The draft opinion, drawn up by Kim van Sparrentak (Greens/EFA, Netherlands), is relatively short. However, it manages to rekindle the debate on automatic content filters, which was initiated during the reform of copyright rules. The document highlights “the unreliability of the current automated means of removing illegal content from audiovisual content sharing platforms” and calls for “a ban on generalised moderation and automatic content filters”. This issue is currently being discussed by stakeholders in a structured dialogue (the last meeting of which, scheduled for 30 March, was cancelled due to the coronavirus).
For the rest, Ms van Sparrentak's draft report calls for the transparency of recommendation algorithms and personalised marketing on audiovisual platforms. The report also expresses concern about the dependence of schools on educational technology services, including artificial intelligence systems provided by a limited range of companies. Furthermore, it stresses the importance of establishing an appropriate framework for public procurement of these services for the public sector (specific criteria such as non-discrimination and data protection).
Members of the IMCO Committee will have until 7 April to table their amendments. See the draft opinion: https://bit.ly/3dIgszV (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)