Members of the European Parliament Committee on Civil Liberties discussed, on Tuesday 29 June, a report drafted by Petar Vitanov (S&D, Bulgaria) on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools by European police and judicial authorities.
By 36 votes to 24 with 6 abstentions, they called for a “human control” of these techniques, with open algorithms and public audits, and for a ban on “ behavioural policing, private facial recognition databases and assigning scores to citizens”. Systems such as lie detectors at external borders should not exist either.
They also express concern about the use of AI systems by the police, “which could lead to mass surveillance violating the key principles of proportionality and necessity”. They also point to the risk of bias and discrimination in the algorithms on which AI and machine learning systems are based.
“Currently, AI-based identification systems are inaccurate and can misidentify ethnic minority groups, LGBTI people, the elderly and women, among others”. And predictions fuelled by AI “may amplify existing discrimination, which is a concern in the context of law enforcement and the justice system”.
The September plenary will be asked to validate this vote.
Link to the report: https://bit.ly/3h6ugbd (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)