#eu (44 results)

Campaign: ADM and People on the Move

Borders without AI

29,000 people have died in the Mediterranean over the past ten years while trying to reach the EU. You would think that the EU wanted this tragedy to stop and scientists across Europe were working feverishly on making this happen with the latest technology. The opposite is the case: With the help of so-called Artificial Intelligence, the walls are being raised, financed with taxpayers' money.

EU’s AI Act fails to set gold standard for human rights

Following a gruelling negotiation process, EU institutions are expected to conclusively adopt the final AI Act in April 2024. Here’s our round-up of how the final law fares against our collective demands.

Press release

EU Parliament votes on AI Act; member states will have to plug surveillance loopholes

Today, the European rulebook on AI - the so-called EU Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act) - will be adopted in the European Parliament. It aims to regulate AI development and usage in the European Union. Although the Act takes basic steps in safeguarding fundamental rights, it includes glaring loopholes that threaten to undermine its very purpose.

Press release

AI Act about to finally become law?

Press release

Europe’s Approach to AI regulation: Embracing Big Tech and Security Hardliners

Europe is about to adopt two major regulations on Artificial Intelligence: the EU’s AI Act and the Council of Europe’s Convention on AI. Yet, while both rulebooks were initially meant to turn the tables on Big Tech and to effectively protect people against governments' abuse of AI technology, interests of tech companies and governments' security hardliners may win out.

Press release

AI Act deal: Key safeguards and dangerous loopholes

After a negotiation marathon in the global spotlight, EU lawmakers closed a deal late Friday night on the AI Act, the EU’s law on regulating the development and use of Artificial Intelligence systems. The EU Parliament managed to introduce a number of key safeguards to improve the original draft text, but Member States still decided to leave people without protection in situations where they would need it most.

Press release

AI Act drama: Illegitimate deals, irresponsible negotiation hours, and unacceptable pressure games

After a negotiation marathon on its Artificial Intelligence Act, EU Member States put the screws on the EU Parliament to put national security and industry interests before the protection of people’s rights. Having been negotiating for over 20 hours, sleep-deprived EU lawmakers were pressuring each other today to close an unacceptable deal – on some of the most fundamental implications of AI on people and society.

Op-Ed

Generative AI must be neither the stowaway nor the gravedigger of the AI Act

Apparently, adoption of the AI Act as a whole is at risk because the EU Council and Parliament are unable to reach a common position on generative AI, with some Member States wanting to exempt generative AI from any kind of regulation. This is highly irresponsible, as it threatens effective prevention of harms caused by AI-driven systems in general.

Civil society calls on the EU to draw limits on surveillance technology

Police and migration authorities must respect fundamental rights when using AI

As AI systems are increasingly used by law enforcement, migration control and national security authorities, the EU Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act) is an urgent opportunity to prevent harm, protect people from rights violations and provide legal boundaries for authorities to use AI within the confines of the rule of law.

Statement with 118 organizations

EU legislators must close dangerous loophole in AI Act

The European Union is entering the final stage of negotiations on its Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act), but Big Tech and other industry players have lobbied to introduce a major loophole to the high-risk classification process, undermining the entire legislation. We call on EU legislators to remove this loophole and maintain a high level of protection in the AI Act.

A data scientist had found that their work (the algorithm depicted on their laptop screen) has ‘jumped’ out of the screen and threatens to cause problems with a variety of different industries. Here a hospital, bus and siren could represent healthcare, transport and emergency services. The data scientist looks shocked and worried about what trouble the AI may cause there.

Making sense of the Digital Services Act

How to define platforms’ systemic risks to democracy

It remains unclear how the largest platforms and search engines should go about identifying “systemic risks” to comply with the DSA. AlgorithmWatch outlines a methodology that will serve as a benchmark for how we, as a civil society watchdog, will judge the risk assessments that are currently being conducted.

Final EU negotiations: we need an AI Act that puts people first

As the final stage of negotiations on the Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act) enters AlgorithmWatch together with 149 civil society organisations call on EU institutions to improve the regulation. In our civil society statement we spell out clear suggestions how the regulation should be changed in order to protect people and our human rights effectively.

Political Ads: EU Lawmakers must uphold human rights to privacy and free expression

In light of a leaked “non-paper” from the European Commission, AlgorithmWatch and 26 other civil society organizations have called on EU co-legislators to address our serious concerns about the proposed regulation on Targeting and Transparency of Political Advertising.

Press release

EU Parliament vote on AI Act: Lawmakers chose to protect people against harms of AI systems

After long months of intense negotiations, members of the European Parliament voted on the EU’s Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act). AlgorithmWatch applauds the Parliament for strengthening fundamental rights protection against the negative impacts of AI, such as that of face recognition in public spaces. Yet, the Parliament missed the opportunity to enhance protection for some people who would need it most.

Joint statement

A diverse auditing ecosystem is needed to uncover algorithmic risks

The Digital Services Act (DSA) will force the largest platforms and search engines to pay for independent audits to help check their compliance with the law. But who will audit the auditors? Read AlgorithmWatch and AI Forensics' joint feedback to the European Commission on strengthening the DSA’s independent auditing rules via a Delegated Act.

Open letter

DSA must empower public interest research with public data access

Access to “public data” is key for researchers and watchdogs working to uncover societal risks stemming from social media—but major platforms like Facebook and Twitter are cutting access to important data analytics tools to study them. The EU must now step in to ensure that researchers aren’t left in the dark.

Automation on the Move

With the ‘Automation on the Move’ project, AlgorithmWatch will help to challenge the untenable status quo for people on the move.

Civil society statement: we call on members of the EU Parliament to ensure the AI Act protects people and our rights

A joint statement on Digital Services Act implementation at the national level

As the political process of negotiating the landmark new set of EU rules for a safer and more accountable online environment has concluded, civil society organisations from across Europe joined forces to offer suggestions on how to strengthen the harmonization of the DSA implementation process across EU member states.

Platforms’ promises to researchers: first reports missing the baseline

An initial analysis shows that platforms have done little to “empower the research community” despite promises made last June under the EU’s revamped Code of Practice on Disinformation.

Civil society observers call for an effective Council of Europe Convention on AI

On the occasion of the International Data Protection Day on 28 January, AlgorithmWatch and six other civil society organizations remind the Council of Europe of its mandate in negotiating a global Convention on AI.

The year automated systems might have been regulated: 2022 in review

Automated systems were surprisingly absent from this year’s major stories. On the regulation front, European institutions stepped up their efforts. How much change Europeans can expect depends on the institutions’ resolve, and the first test of 2023 already began.

A guide to the EU’s new rules for researcher access to platform data

Thanks to the Digital Services Act (DSA), public interest researchers in the EU have a new legal framework to access and study internal data held by major tech platforms. What does this framework look like, and how can it be put into practice?

How the German government decided not to protect people against the risks of AI

Today, EU member states’ ministers are meeting in Brussels to formally adopt the version of the AI Act that their governments agreed to. As it stands, it will not be in line with the German government’s vows to protect fundamental rights. Instead, it will propose lavish exemptions for security agencies to the detriment of people’s rights.

Open Letter: EU must protect fundamental freedoms for online political speech

As EU lawmakers negotiate important new transparency rules for online political ads, AlgorithmWatch and 8 other civil society organizations are calling on the German government to address serious risks to democratic pluralism and freedom of expression contained in the Council’s most recent proposal.

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