The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) published on Thursday 23 July its response to the European Commission’s White Paper on Artificial Intelligence, in which it recommends revising the definition of high-risk applications. This document was adopted at the committee’s plenary the week before.
As a reminder, in February, the European Commission submitted for consultation a White Paper on Artificial Intelligence, which recommends a risk-based approach (a high-risk sector and the high-risk use of an AI application).
New definition for “risk”
However, in the EESC’s view, this definition could leave out potentially dangerous sectors, such as political advertising.
In this context, the Committee considers that it would be better to draw up a list of common characteristics of AI applications or uses considered intrinsically high risk, regardless of the sector, rather than an exhaustive list of high-risk applications.
Facial recognition and tracing
In its opinion, the EESC openly states its opposition to “the widespread use of AI-driven biometric recognition for surveillance or to track, assess or categorise humans or human behaviour or emotions”. Although the EESC considers that this practice should be prohibited, it concedes that biometric recognition could be allowed, “provided that there is a scientifically proven effect, in controlled environments and under strict conditions”.
With regard to the mobile contact tracing applications that have sprung up in most European countries to combat the Covid-19 pandemic, the EESC points out that these must be “robust, effective, transparent and explainable”. They should also respect human rights, ethical principles and existing legislation, be fair and inclusive and be based on a voluntary basis. Link: https://bit.ly/2WL9Vxt (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)