On Thursday 14 March, the European Audiovisual Observatory published a report on algorithmic transparency and the responsibility of digital services, a few weeks after the effective implementation of the Digital Services Act (‘DSA’) and the Digital Markets Act (‘DMA’).
The report examines what it calls “the turning point brought about by these two new European regulations in the way algorithmic systems can be made more transparent and accountable to the user” and, therefore, successfully regulated.
The report goes on to say that the European regulations pushing for greater transparency of algorithms and their use should make it easier to understand the issues surrounding AI in the future. “In this sense, it will be particularly important to assess the interaction between the planned AI legislation and the DSA, if its new rules aimed at the 'interpretability' of AI come into force”, it reads.
Without pre-empting the future impact of the DSA and DMA, the report nevertheless believes that the emphasis in these regulations on holding platforms accountable for their failings towards their users can only be beneficial for the entire algorithm ecosystem in Europe.
The report also supports the importance of these strict transparency rules for users, particularly in terms of their ability to be informed and to make decisions that may subsequently have an impact on the policies of the platforms and companies using these algorithms.
“The scope of the transparency obligations already in place - at least in the EU context - as well as those currently being drawn up, imposes de facto extensive obligations on service providers”, the text explains in detail. (Original version in French by Isalia Stieffatre)